As I walked under the trees by the civic center, I was grabbed from behind. Both of my arms were pulled back alongside my backpack effectively pinning my upper body. A man’s voice said, “I need your badge right fucking now!”
In a state of disbelief, and thinking this must be a very poor joke on the part of some drunk asshole, I started turning around to see who it was.
“Don’t look at my face,” my assailant said tightening his grip on my upper arms. “I need to get into the event. I need your badge. I don’t want to hurt you, but I will.” […]
I do wonder about the motives of my attacker. I can only think of a few possibilities. Maybe the guy was a paparazzi wanting to get photos of the celbs walking about. Maybe he wanted access to the various rich and influential people that were at the conference so that he could pitch them on his hot new idea. Or maybe he meant somebody else harm. I’ll probably never know. All I know is that he didn’t want money. He wanted access.
Cash isn’t always the most important currency.
Or maybe he just really, really waned to go to the $6,000, invitation only event.
(via Steven Walling)