A smile curled at the corners of his lips as he watched the passing crowds. It was certainly a beautiful day to be out and about, especially because he had a question to address the masses who were out today. Dominick pulled a discarded barrel from a nearby alley and set it out on the curb before standing atop of it.

It happens somewhere down the line, we in this thing of ours encounter an attempt on our life during peaceful periods. In some cases, we survive and are given the opportunity to see our assailant. In some cases we're walking down the street and one of our bodyguards suddenly goes down in the same manner.

Now when this happens to one of us we're usually able to find a safe place for a few hours, unless of course it's the bodyguard who took the bullet.

My question to you all is, what do you, as a member of this thing of ours, believe is the proper reaction? Do you return fire at your assailant if they attempted on your life, or do you hide out and report it to your leadership and let them handle it? The same situation would also apply to your bodyguard, assuming the attempt or hit involved one of them.

Personally, I believe it's crucial that communication be established immediately, to the upper echelon after the attempt. Regardless of how intense the temptation to settle things personally may be. After all, it's about respect, and allows the upper echelon to do what they do best in these situations. 

Now, what would you do?

Yeah is walking down the street enjoy the sunny day. There are some crowd people on the street she comes closer and takes a look. There is Senior mafioso stands on Barrel, sharing his mind. He shares interesting thing about being wacked should we take care of it personally or report it to upper echelon first. 

Yeah comes a cross through mass people and raise her hand and shares her opinion..

“ Hey I am agree with you sir, It is better to report and communicate first to the upper echelon because it could be give some effect to our family or people surround us too if we are too rush to handle it. I believe the upper echelon would do their best to handle the things because if there are some of family’s member being attacked without personal reason its mean they attack the family is in it ?” she rise her eyesbrow..

“ And if all clear enough, or it can’t be communicate with the assailant or his family. Ill ask permission to handle it with my own hand. As you said that’s big temptation” she smiles and steps back…

Ah. Good one! Not one I ever remember really discussing. The Great Gatson applauds your effort. Wonderful.

Now, I will speak as the leader I am. Should a member of mine fire upon you then should you fire back? No.

Not because I am a blood hungry lunatic but because it is not your place to fire upon my members. Nor is it your place to administer punishments to them. 

A life for a life has long fallen by the wayside in this thing of ours. Whether that be correct or not. It may be the case that a much more powerful family does this person belong. His life may be worth far more than yours. If you should retaliate without question then you may find yourself also placed alongside them on the sea bed. Yes, shocking I know, but it has happened and it will happen again. Don't ever think being shot at grants your free reign on the assailants life.

Communication and cooperation is absolutely vital within this organisation. Without it we are one step closer, and theres not many steps left, to be gun touting thugs with no brains. Do we really want that? It would really spoil my charming looks and wonderful demeanor to have to become that way.

To be honest a lot rests on the circumstances but providing you are in a safe place with time to have a chat then always yeah chat first.

It is often pretty clear quite quickly if it someone learning the way of things that fucked up or someone on a mission and once that is clarified the outcome can be negotiated.

It gets a bit tricky if your safe hiding place kicks you out after a few hours and some are sleeping at the time - but still you can usually find someone with some influence to talk to you and try and resolve - whatever the needed outcome might be!

He was looking good, no. He was good. Everyone envied the man with such well-defined pectorals, his perfectly sculpted hairline, and the amazing ass of a taut Swedish model. Everything you could wish to be, Bachelor truly was, but right now was not about him but rather the conversation at hand, where the men and women discussed the merits of shooting or communicating.

This reminds me of a story...

Accidentally noticing a mirror within a nearby store window, he saw his body and forgot completely what he was going to say. Instead, he now posed a bit and smiled at his reflection, it was truly a treat that times like these could happen for everyone involved - they were surely not sure how to react, and he was owning the moment.

Oh, yeah. Uh, I always let someone else handle anything that involves thinking. A pretty boy like me doesn't worry about anything like that, you know? If someone shoots at me, it'll fix itself. I guess? Who knows.

Kissing towards the mirror, he ended his response. It was great. No one could argue otherwise.

Sirius headed down the streets on a sunny day to see what was up and this gathering crowd around Dominick caught his eye.

They were debating about what to do after someone try to take your life, he pushed a joint from his inner pocket and lit it up, slowly inhaling the smoke while listeing to what other mobsters would have to say about this.

He joined them and said.

"In my opinion, if you are able to find a safe place and lay low, do it. Contact you Crew Leader and ask for further instructions. If you caught a witness statement, send it to your CL or any other active member from the upper structures. Ask for auth if you think you can pull the trigger, but don't do it without speaking with someone higher than you on the rank hierarchy."

Harvey was going for a walk when he noticed Dominick standing before a crowd discussing what people would do if they were shot at. Harvey was a firm believer that the whole reason we had crews and upper structures in "this thing of ours" was to keep order and make the tough decisions, so the answer should be obvious...

"If some takes a shot at you, unless you are one of the uppers yourself it is not up to you what happens to them. When you join a crew you are putting your life in the hands of your leaders which is why it is not something you should do without giving it a good amount of thought. Even if it was not a time of peace, even if we were at war I would check before I shot back... who shoots who and when is not up to me to decide. You have to trust that the leaders in your city know what's best and report what happened to them, communication is extremely important if you want to survive in my opinion."

Dominick listens as familiar faces and others not so familiar begin to approach him. He'd nod to the points being made and hear each out before addressing a few interesting ones.

Thank you for contributing to this, I really do appreciate it.

Gaston . I completely agree with what you're saying, however, for the sake of continuing the discussion some further. 

Would you, as a leader in this thing of ours, return hostilities displayed to you by another leader or as you said, run it up the chain as you'd expect your members to?

I understand it's a subjective question, there are a lot of variables that can come into play. Though, I'd believe at some point, if you're in a position to respond with minimum chance of shit hitting the fan, why not? We've all chosen this life. I'd suspect being shot at is one of the most disrespectful things that could happen, for someone to make a move on your own life. Life is precious after all and we invest so much of it into bettering our cities and operations.

All that aside, I couldn't agree more with you on your touch of communication.

Keeping a line out with your fellow leaders in your city, parent cities and even with the offending family is essential. It keeps business happening and our pockets lined with money. Without communication we are weak. Choosing to forgo opening communication can have dastardly effects, too. Especially in this case. As we've seen in previous times, making hasty choices leads to a permanent move to the bottom of some body of water.

FuegoSteve had just got done getting some ice cream from the local creamery. Cookies n cream was his favorite. As he continued to enjoy the early morning sunshine, he heard a debate he wanted to give his opinion in. He thought this was extremely vital for him to respond as he hopes his current members would know how to respond correctly.

"As a leader, I hope everyone in my district knows not to respond with fire. It only adds to the flame and most of the time it is a lone gunman who is doing something his own leader did not permit him to do. I find that communication is the best key for this. A typical mail to me and any of my hands is all you really need. I have faith in both of my hands, Senorita and WoonBot, to solve these issues even without my presence."

Fuego takes a second to wipe his nose as his allergies were still bothering him...

"When it comes to a bodyguard falling though, the best course of action along with alerting your upper structure is take a mental note of who is active at that time. Obviously the shooter has to be someone who is actively doing things or else it couldn't be them. I know Senorita would be upset to have her favorite bodyguard Ramone die one night without her knowing."

Leah was strolling through the streets when she saw a familiar face standing in the middle of a crowd. She couldn't tell if he was in trouble or was just the center of attention. So she rushed over to assess the situation. Come to find out everything was fine and he was just making conversation in the streets. Usually she would have just continued on but this time she decided to hang out and here what he had to say. She listened until he was done and waited for the others to finish speaking before she chimed in. 

"It's quite simple to me to be perfectly honest. If there was an attempt on your life and you survived your first step is to approach one of your uppers. If they aren't online then you have in most time other uppers in your district. There has to be that line of communication first off. It's always easier to seek the ok first, then trying to plead your story after."

"Now this would be a bit different if there wasn't a protection time after the fact. So yeah my opinion on the matter is that you totally need to reach out to an upper first."

Dubliner stepped out of his favorite cafe just in time to see his crew's RHM, Dominick standing on such a fine, antique-looking barrel. Dub was amazed. There's never a shortage of soap boxes or barrels to stand on! Such beautiful pieces of woodwork. Ever ready for the occasional stage duty. Such loyal objects. Dubliner approaches as members of the gathering crowd begin voicing their own opinions on the matter in which Dominick was speaking... Dubliner could help but adore such a fine piece of carpentry. He got close to it. Examining every tiny splinter that jutted it's way out into the world as far as it's little starchy arms could reach... Beautiful, he would think to himself. He snapped back to reality realizing he was literally rubbing the barrel that Dominick was standing on. 

Oh! Right! Dominick was posing a brilliant question. One that Dubliner had actually pondered himself a few days prior. Bullets go flying! Shoot first, ask later? Or find the details before a shot is made. Dubliner knew that flirting with taking another man's life was no laughing matter. The last thing he would ever want would be to take a life without knowing the details. Should it turn out to be a misunderstanding, there's no going back. Feeling the need to quickly quell the level of rising awkwardness as bystanders stared at Dubliner rubbing Dominick's barrel, he spoke up. 

"There's two ways to look at this, if not apparent by the two answers posed by Dominick himself..." That was stupid, Dubliner thought, "Umm. Shoot or not to shoot. That's the question! Whether tis nobler to bathe in the hail of bullets and gunpowder with a fellow mafioso or to gather knowledge on the situation at hand. To die--To ask, No more!" Dubliner was waving his hands back and forth seemingly providing arguments for either side as his hands would change direction. He hoped that no one would realize he was simply re-wording Shakespearean quotes to fit the present situation.

The thinking was that people see Shakespeare as a genius, so if Dub were to change some words here and there to form a somewhat cohesive sentence pertaining to the question at hand, they would be none the wiser. Dub was really just interested in that damn barrel! He forgot the rest of the quote... Dubliner stopped abruptly. Finally he swallowed hard as a bead of sweat cascaded down his left temple.

"I suppose that the answer is quite obvious. Playing games with another human life isn't something that should be taken lightly. You always want to make sure you have the right go ahead before you pull that trigger. If you make a mistake and wrongfully kill someone, the buck doesn't stop there. A payment will be due whether with your life, or a substantial monetary due. I would personally recommend always asking a higher-up. It saves you from future problems. It takes the responsibility off of yourself and puts it onto the shoulders of one in a leadership position."

Dubliner straightens his tie as his eyes quickly peek down towards the barrel under Dom's feet and immediately back up towards the crowd.

"I'll be going then." Dubliner tips his cap to the crowd and to Dominick and he bows out towards the alleyway that Dominick pulled that barrel from!