Considering my options following early morning visit designed to intimidate.
It is now almost two hours since two burly guys knocked on my front door and threatened me over some unnamed and unspecified thing that I have written here on DemolitionNews and/or on the DemolitionNews Facebook page.
The police have been informed and I have an incident number, but that offers very little in the way of reassurance. What if they come back? What if they’re on the next demolition site I visit? What if they’re waiting for me the next time I am walking home from the station alone?
I now find myself between a rock and a hard place. Do I ignore the threats and soldier on, editorial integrity intact, possibly inviting another less peaceful visit? Or do I simply bow out and allow the intimidation to win? To be 100 percent honest, I don’t actually know the answer to that question myself as yet.
For almost six years, I have worked tirelessly in and around the demolition business. I have worked weekends and long into the night to bring readers the very latest industry news. I single-handedly created the Demolition-Jobs.co.uk website to help demolition workers find employment. I have supported countless charitable causes to aid the industry and those that work within it. And in all that time, I have been threatened with a writ once (by a man who has his lawyer on speed dial); and printed just one retraction when I –admittedly – got my facts wrong.
I have embraced social media as I want (wanted…?) to be a part of the demolition industry, communicating with the operatives and machine operators just as much as with the directors and managers within the sector. As a result, my home address – the famed Demolition News Towers – is there for all to see.
And now this has happened.
Was I scared? You’re damn right I was scared. If the two guys were seeking to intimidate and belittle, they did their job perfectly.
But the over-riding feeling I have been left with is not one of fear. It is not that my editorial integrity has been questioned and threatened. It is not even that my home address is too visible.
The main feeling I have right now is do I really want to be associated with an industry in which such behaviour – condoned or otherwise – exists?
Even though it will have a direct and immediate impact upon my ability to financially support my family, I am going to take a day or two to mull over my options.
Until then, DemolitionNews will remain silent.
