www.boingboing.net/2008/07/05/body-armor-developer.html
This video is not new, but a friend just pointed it to me. It is noteworthy because it shows a dude shooting himself in the chest and not dying. Also, because it includes mock-pizza-boxes crafted for a robbery enactment on television.
Richard Davis, former US Marine and onetime pizza delivery guy in Detroit, survived a gun shootout (he killed three armed robbers when they attacked him during a delivery).
July 5, 2008 10:59 AM Richard Davis, former US Marine and onetime pizza delivery guy in Detroit, survived a gun shootout (he killed three armed robbers when they attacked him during a delivery).
Why the heck was the guy delivering pizzas with a loaded revolver drawn? The "gang member" who pointed the gun was not reported to have said anything, so how do we know he wasn't just pointing his gun in self defense? If you believed that you were endangering your life to deliver pizzas, how on earth would it be worth it for minimum wage + tips? It makes more sense that he was an undercover cop, which would have also given him the contacts to start his body armour business. Pizza delivery guy has the balls to shoot several stone killers before they can fire a shot?
July 5, 2008 12:51 PM The wiki page says that he was shot in the incident, too. The thing that gets me, is that in the video, he says that he pulled the gun and hid it under the box while still thinking this was going to be an ordinary delivery. If he was armed when he turned the corner, could it not be argued that "attackers" shot in self defense?
July 5, 2008 12:53 PM I cannot stand the military channel. There's much to be said about military history and the surrounding context, but a lot of the shows on that channel add up to "blowing shit up is cool", while only vaguely pointing out that blowing other people up is *not* cool. I would hope that the invention of really effective bulletproof armor would add up to the cessation or reduction of gunfighting, but in reality, it's probably going to just mean bigger guns. Nevermind the fact that the people who can afford the better armor gain an advantage because they're more affluent, and you've got a sociological quandary.
July 5, 2008 12:57 PM That's the kind of bullshit TV documentary that makes you doubt the veracity of anything reported in it. This style of BS seems to be have come from US cable channels such as A&E, TLC, and so on, where it has been the stock-in-trade for many years. This one comes from something called "The Military Channel."
what Phikus points out, the bullshit comes from common elements of this style: - hackneyed, clich-ridden narration, delivered in a sort of Casey-Kasem-meets-Coming-Soon voice - camera bullshit: the shaky handheld, and the tilt - re-enactments that have the look of an EC horror comic - repeated or slow-motion violence This is bread-and-circuses stuff.
July 5, 2008 12:59 PM The thing that gets me, is that in the video, he says that he pulled the gun and hid it under the box while still thinking this was going to be an ordinary delivery. This reminded me to underscore an aspect that people reading this may not be contextually aware of: It's not unheard of that nefarious people order pizza to a random house in order to rob the delivery person, because they're typically carrying the cash for that night's orders. There's a good reason for a Deliverator to be carrying a gun, or swords, or whathaveyou.
July 5, 2008 1:10 PM @#14 Bouncy Bouncy: Why does Boing Boing lower itself to it? Because a YouTube video of a dude shooting himself in the gut, then holding up a woven bamboo pizza dummy for a robbery re-enactment, while the Casey Kasem guy narrates in dramatic deadpan and scary music plays, is awesome.
July 5, 2008 1:15 PM what a stupid vid to post here :( for me (maybe not an average European) his story boils down to "so i went there, murdered three people in their won backyard, and look at me now - im a hero".
July 5, 2008 1:15 PM @#16 Xeni Jardin: Because a YouTube video of a dude shooting himself in the gut, then holding up a woven bamboo pizza dummy for a robbery re-enactment, while the Casey Kasem guy narrates in dramatic deadpan and scary music plays is awesome.
July 5, 2008 1:21 PM @#18: Deconstructing the funniness or lack thereof in black-comedy-verite on the internets is like arguing who's more evil, Darth Vader, Stalin, or Hitler. If you don't get it, and don't dig it, the space bar is your pal.
July 5, 2008 1:35 PM He went on to develop new forms of concealable body armor using kevlar. Those products are now widely used by military and law enforcement personnel, and private sector folks who have reason to believe they will be shot.
July 5, 2008 1:58 PM This guy is kind of an institution in law enforcement circles. My dad is a cop in Warren, MI and for a while they were using Second Chance vests exclusively. I frittered away a few saturday mornings watching this guys promotional videos with my old man - interestingly enough, back in the 90's he alleged that his cardiologist advised him to stop with this stunt, but here he is doing it again. This is 2 years after the '67 riots and the start of Detroit's hard, long slump. When I lived in Detroit (2002-2006)there were a lot of no-go areas for delivery businesses. My neighborhood was not one of them, but a former delivery driver explained to me that food delivery places (like pizzerias) divvy up their delivery area into zones: In one zone, it's business as usual. In the second zone, you don't approach the house - you have the person come out to your still-running car. In the third zone, you tell them to come and pick it up.
July 5, 2008 2:10 PM FYI - the company that Davis started, Second Chance, was sold in August of 2005 to Armor Holdings. In July of 2005 Second Chance was in deep do-do due to the fact that many of their products which contained a product called Zylon were proven to be defective and there was a large recall issued to law enforcement and others. Something tells me he was wearing Kevlar in this video, not Zylon. Now I wonder what it would've looked like if he'd been wearing his companies products in 2005!
July 5, 2008 2:54 PM As a former (gun carrying) pizza delivery driver, I can say that if you carry cash to any location that the customer wants you'd be an idiot not to have some protection against thuggery. During summers its entirely possible to accumulate well over $100 cash before returning to the store to make a drop. If you've ever watched "Most Police Videos" you know that $100 is worth killing for for some people. I recall, as a youth, that after one such robbery, a clerk at a smoke shop that did everything he was "supposed" to (according to the police) was shot in the head at point blank range so that he wouldn't be a witness to the crime. When you order pizza, expect that the guy who meets you at the door is more than capable of killing you if you try to take his cash.
July 5, 2008 2:59 PM I forgot to mention why we do (or did) it: Want a way to make well above minimum wage and around $100 in tips a night? Want a job where its impossible to have your boss over your shoulder all the time? If those are the options, then the employer is being unrealistic. Driving may be a skill that most have, but not something most are skilled at.
July 5, 2008 3:23 PM "The thing that gets me, is that in the video, he says that he pulled the gun and hid it under the box while still thinking this was going to be an ordinary delivery." Actually, he said no one came to the front door and he heard a someone rustling around in the bushes in the dark who told him to come around to the back of the house. He didn't say he expected it to still be an ordinary delivery. He said he still had HOPE that it would still be an ordinary delivery, but his suspicions were raised enough that he drew and concealed his gun under the pizza box. He also made it clear that the other man pointed his gun first. Why anyone would have an issue with the way this chain of events played out as presented in the video is completely baffling to me. Sure, the camera work, music, and narration are laughable. Still, people have the right to defend themselves from thugs.
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