My little brother just got in a fistfight outside my apartment building...

[Wetzelbill]

Well, not "just" I should say a few hours ago. My Uncle came by to give me a ride to the store and my brother was in the bathroom when we left. After a minute or two he came out to find that we were gone, so he jogged outside and down my stairs to catch us to tell us something. Well, he turned around a corner and bumped into some guy who was walking with a girl (sister or gf? he wasn't sure) and a younger kid. My brother is 21, about 6' tall and maybe 160 something, and he said this guy was a few inches taller and 30 or so pounds heavier plus several years older. I might know who he is if it's a guy who lives in my apt complex. He said he was black too, and I see a guy around here who fits the description. Well anyway, my brother bumped into him and immediately says: "Sorry, dude." So the guy, instead of accepting the apology and moving on, starts making fun of my brother for saying "dude." So my brother tried to brush it off and said "sorry, man, I didn't mean to bump into you." Then the guy starts making fun of him because he said "man." Ok, my brother has fought in Mixed Martial Arts (cage fighting, No Holds Barred etc) contests before and is undefeated. He's not somebody to mess with at all. He looks kind of skinny and so on, but his skill is unbelievable.

Well, there is no way this guy could know that he was making a mistake like that so my brother is trying to apologize and move on with it. But the guy started daring my brother to fight him and saying he beats up white boys all the time etc. (we're Blackfeet Indian, btw, albeit pretty light-skinned) So it kept escalating and escalating and the guy told my brother to go into our little complex enclosure, where there is grass and a pool etc and fight. So they went in and fought. Not a good thing for that guy. My brother hit him a few times and knocked him down; he figured the guy would quit then, so he let him up. Well then the guy starts throwing punches again and my brother pummelled him pretty bad. He headbutted him three times and knocked him cold. By that time, a lot of people came out of their apartments to watch, as they had heard the argument and the guy when he kept calling my brother out to fight. So I get back to from the store and my brother is washing some guys blood off of him. It was scary as I thought he was hurt, but none of it was his. Then I went down to get the mail and which is right by where the fight was and the sidewalk was all wet from somebody wiping blood off of it.

The thing is, I get worried because sometimes you get stupid people around here. I have almost got into a few fights just going to the store next door. A few times people have said things to me, trying to start something. Most of the time you can get out of situations like that. You have to stick up for yourself, but it's never good to look for something like that. The guy made a mistake by trying to pick on my brother, that was just dumb luck. I mean 99 percent of the time you could start a fight and the guy isn't going to be someone who fights in competitions. It just isn't going to happen. However, what if a fight breaks out and somebody has a knife? Or a gun? That's a tough situation, one that I think can happen to anybody. Sometimes things happen whether you are looking for it or not, or starting it or not. My brother practically ran right into a situation he couldn't get out of, with somebody who was overly aggressive. Thank God it wasn't somebody with a weapon, but just somebody who wanted to settle it with fists, which is bad enough, I guess, but not as bad as getting shot at or stabbed. I suppose what I'm getting at is, we are all mortal, we are all susceptible and any one of us at anytime could get into a bad situation. And, I hope we can all recognize that and be careful.