AN EYE FOR AN EYE?

Did I mention that my half-brother AJ was jumped by some wannabe gangsters last week?

Friday, after school, my brother AJ, all of 14, was walking home, minding his own, when suddenly a carload of people drove up next to him.

"Are you AJ?"

"Yeah."

"Do you know Monette?"

"Yeah. What about her?"

They got out of the car, three or four of them, plus two girls along for the ride. They hit him, beat him to the ground and stomped on him. The girls were laughing the whole time.

He's a tough kid-- he's alright. A big-ass knot in his forehead, and a hospital visit, but no extended stay, and nothing broken or sprained.

Monette is some trouble-making girl who's brother, Michael, used to be friends with AJ. Then, some kid named Daniel started living with Michael and Monette and their family, and all hell broke loose.

It doesn't help matters that my other brother, DM, is a show-off and a braggart and has a big mouth. DM's car was stripped and torched when he left it by the Wal-Mart in Lancaster one night.

I don't know if AJ getting jumped had to do with DM or not, but one thing is for sure: AJ isn't a knucklehead. He minds his own, stays out of trouble, and is popular with the ladies. But because of his loyalty to DM, he suffers the repercussions.

Monette's family and associates have been terrorizing my family for the span of a few months: tires slashed, rumors spread, threats made... but they fucked up real bad when they jumped AJ.

I often state in this blog that, if anything ever happened to me, the retaliation would not be pretty. This is not an exaggeration. Unlike all those people you all grew up around, who claimed they had an uncle in the Mob or a cousin in the Sheriff's Department, I am related to family members who will fuck you up if you ever get on their bad side.

They will. Not maybe, not might... they will.

And there's no way for someone like me to stop them if they're pissed off enough to take action.

Later that night, before the news of AJ's plight even reached me, my stepfather Terry and my older brother Joe took care of the punks who jumped my younger brother.

Terry did a bid in Iraq about a year ago. Joe fought in Operation Desert Storm. They found out where the gang of teens (16, 17 year olds) were staying, went over there, called them out, and beat the living shit out of them. Those same girls who were laughing as AJ was getting stomped begged and pleaded with my stepdad and brother to have mercy.

Yes, it sounds bad, two grown men pummeling some punk-ass teenagers to the ground... but so is jumping my younger brother for no fucking reason, without giving him a fair fight to begin with.

In fact, AJ was brought along, and allowed to deliver a few punches to the culprits as they were being held up by my older brother.

Don't tell me about wrong or right. Don't tell me about escalating violence, or letting the law handle it. Don't tell me that what they did was wrong, because when I heard the news the next morning, from my sister, my only concern was that Terry and Joe would have the cops called on them.

But think about it: two Army vets, dealing with a bunch of snot-nosed wannabe gangsters (the set they claim is Santa Clarita-- SANTA CLARITA! Talk about being soft from the get-go), in this politically-charged climate of societal military worship? I don't think the cops are going to arrest anyone in my family.

Not to mention, AJ is my stepdad's only child, and I don't blame him for losing his cool and going after these chumps. Terry is a kind, mellow person, but the war in Iraq scarred him a bit, and he's got a lot of aggression left inside of him. And he's been cool up to this point, not flipping out when the tires got slashed or the threatening phone messages came around.

I have a feeling that, rather than escalate, the attacks will cease, once word gets around that AJ was swiftly avenged.

Sometimes in life, you have to fight back. That's all there is to it. It's not a good thing, it's not an instinct to be proud of... but it's a fact.

I love peace. I want to promote peace, not war. But sometimes, people bring the war to you, and you have to either run or fight. And if they back you into a corner and you can't run, you'd better fight.

I'm sure that, if AJ had been warned and given a fair chance, he would've run. But they gaffled him up real quick, and he didn't even get a chance to land one punch, thanks to being outnumbered by older kids.

So, when does the peace process break down and the war process kick in? When they hurt one of your own, and that's what these idiots did.

And they paid the price.

Will they retaliate? Probably not. I think my stepdad and my older brother taught these wannabes a lesson: be careful who you're fucking with, lest you find yourself getting knocked the fuck out on your front lawn on a Friday night with all of your "hardcore" friends watching.

I don't expect anyone to understand this at all. In fact, I expect to hear all sorts of shit from people about this. I expect to be called a 'savage' or a 'brute' for going along with this, so go ahead-- names don't hurt. Kicks and punches and derisive laughter? Those things hurt.

The ultimate irony: my family moved up to Lancaster to get out of the Valley, because of all the violence going on...

That's all for now. I'll keep you posted, if you even care at this point...