South African Shop-keepers shoot at looters

Alas, I did not grab the URL of the video. Maybe you saw it.

Shop-keepers in South Africa...maybe 4 East Indian and 3 European...are holding 150 wannabe looters at bay.

One of the shop-keepers is popping away with his shotgun with little apparent effect.

The road is wide. It is bounded by wide verges and tall, chain-link fencing that might be topped with barbed wire. The battle front might be 100 yards wide. It is difficult to be certain because of the warping effect of smartphone cameras.

The looters, who have dark skin, are using road signs as shields.

One man has a revolver.

Another man appears to have a semi-auto battle rifle.

The shop-keepers charge the looters who appear to drop back.

***

There is much to process in this vignette.

Part of what makes this difficult is the lack of context.

Are the shop-keepers simply buying time so their wives and families can load the vehicles for the drive to the airport and thence to Oz? If so, it makes lots of sense. Those shop-keepers will not have to live amongst, and serve, the people they are shooting at today.

Is the normal method of purchasing things in stores to give the shop-keeper a list at the door and he fills the basket? This was common even in the 1960s in the US. The merchandise (and workers) were on one side of a counter and the customers were on the other side. Security might be workable if the door was locked and one customer was allowed in the store at a time.

Were the shop-keepers even trying to hurt the looters? Maybe it was just a case chest-beating and gorilla dust.

Shotguns and shotgun ammo are not the best choice when 7 good-guys are facing down 150 potential goblins. Shotguns are too slow to reload, the ammo is too bulky and heavy and most shotgun ammo (birdshot) is of limited effectiveness at ranges a rock-thrower can easily cover.

Was this staged for the cameras? There are so many facets that are problematic that one must ask the question.

Why did they video the encounter? It seems as if they are presenting the future prosecution evidence tied in gold ribbon.

Why did they charge the looters? Under US courts, that would invalidate their story that they were merely protecting their family and property. It is possible that there was "cover" that would allow the looters to flank them and they wanted to push them back to a section of road with less flanking risk, but that is far from clear.

Emotions

Emotions make us do things that, later, prove to be stupid.

Most likely all of the questions posed above can be attributed to adrenalin and testosterone.

Perhaps it is conceit on my part, but I want to offer two pieces of advice to my US readers, should we find ourselves in a similar situation.

It was advice given to me by John Ingraham who was the Assistant Scout Master when I was a scout.

"Don't start dribbling the basketball until you know where you are going and what you are going to do when you get there."

The second part of his advice was

"Know the answers to those questions before you ask for the pass, because nobody can think on their feet quickly enough to do any good."