Happy Slaps

There's a new social phenomenon running rampant in the U.K., and presumably it will also rear it's head in the U.S.A. sooner or later.

According to the Urban Dictionary, a Happy Slap is defined as:

1. happy slap

happy slaps, happy slapping.

Slapping a random person (they can be on the bus, walking down the street, whatever) whilst recording the act with a video camera phone. It's a very unfortunate London phenomenon... Victims are usually boys around the same age as the attackers, but it's not unknown for victims to be older, or even women.

The title link is to a Google search for "happy slap". In a few minutes of browsing you will find numerous videos of people being attacked, often rather violently. These aren't mere friendly taps. I've seen videos that have included round-house kicks to the face, full on body tackles, drop kicks to the kidneys, etc. One video showed a middle-aged man being pummeled by multiple people until he jumped off a public bus.

This is yet another symptom of a society that is teaching us that people can get away with anything and that everyone is a potential victim that is unlikely to fight back. Could you imagine "happy slapping" catching on in a society where most or even many people were armed? Did you ever hear of someone walking up to Wyatt Earp in the old west and giving him a "happy slap"
while his buddy tried to photograph the event? Of course not!

Our society is choosing a course that reduces respect for the sanctity of other people. Zero violence policies in schools indiscriminately punish a kid who tries to fight off an attacking bully instead of meekly taking a beating. Cities, states and even nations are doing their best to outlaw defensive tools. The legal system prefers useless restraining orders rather than concealed handguns. In the U.K, this tendency is particularly bad as people are more or less forbidden to carry anything for the purposes of self defense.

If I was brutally attacked for the purposes of making an amusing video, the perpetrators would experience a sensation far removed from happiness. People need to learn to stand up for themselves, defend themselves against attacks and discourage this sort of abusive and violent behavior. It is a person's sacred right to defend themselves, and it's about time people started supporting and exercising this right. Let's repeal the laws and policies that reduce an innocent person's legal right to defend themselves.