Encounter at Aston Avenue

The other day I posted a smartalek comment about crime in Mississippi, but Mississippi and particularly the towns in southwest MS really are nice places to live. But I had an interesting encounter yesterday after work.

I was walking in a nice neighborhood down a well-travelled avenue in the middle of the day and was assaulted by two schoolkids in a random act of malevolence. I passed by this couple of teens who were about the size of 11th graders or so. They were crossing the road on a side street. As I passed I said something like, "hey, guys, how's it going?" They said nothing and kept going. I kept going.
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I am situationally aware enough to look at them and speak to them and make sure their path is not intercepting mine and theat they are not trying to surround me, but about the time I got to the other side of the street one of them threw a fist-sized piece of concrete at me. It landed next to me and I looked back at them and one of them yelled at the other (apparently for my benefit), "Hey, that wasn't very nice of you!" They took off running.
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I wasn't about to try to chase them down to beat them up - what could I hope to gain from hurting a couple of schoolkids? Plus the fact that beating up a couple of high school juniors can be an iffy proposition.
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Anyway, I walked on. No harm no foul - right? Well, This happened right in front of an assisted living home. What if it hadn't been me but had been an 80 year old man? What if I'd had Whit with me and they'd hit him with a piece of concrete? What if these two numbskulls had thrown a brick at someone with a gun and a shorter fuse? What if they'd actually hit me and stunned me?