What is Sandman supposed to do there? Does he have to move?
As
@One Brow pointed out, I failed to answer these questions from page 8. My bad, it is a bad habit I have of not always staying up to speed in threads.
No, Sandmann does not have to move. I have to imagine the most likely response or action by Sandmann by trying to put myself in his place. Not easy. If I'm standing alone somewhere and here comes a guy walking right at me as if he's going to walk right into me, I get out of his way. Common courtesy or politeness is beside the point. Common sense will do.
But this is a much different situation. Let's say Sandmann believes every one of his peers are looking at him as Phillips walks right up to him. This is a high school boy. What his classmates think of him means a great deal. He never wants to be judged in any way that would leave him on the outs with his peers. I believe this is the stress and discomfort
@Bulletproof is referring to. So, what do I do? This all happens fast and I am surely confused in a "WTF, is this guy walking right up to me? What the hell is this?" sort of way. All eyes are on me. If I decide to step aside, maybe I'll be theatric about it. Pivot sideways, throw both hands and arms behind me in a universal "be my guest and pass me" motion. I might get some laughs from my peers. Laughs are good. I'm looking cool to my peers. Remember, he knows all his peer's eyes are on him. But those few seconds of confusion result in Phillips "he's right in my face with this drum! What do I do?!? I can't back down, everyone is watching this". The result is the stare down.
Personally, my reaction would likely have been different. I would be pissed. I would engage Phillips verbally. "Get out of my face, man. What the hell are you doing?!" I might physically push his drum away from me. I'm not going to lose face with my peers doing that.
But, he chose the "stand my ground" option. The opportunity to theatrically let him pass and get some laughs and not lose face came and went. In a more normal situation, no crowd of peers, no cameras, courtesy or common sense results in simply getting out of his way.
Here, all that I've described that is important to a teenage boy results in a stare down. So, I'm long winded, but I'm trying to put myself in the place of a boy who has the eyes of his peers upon him. This is what
@Bulletproof is talking about, I believe. The stare down can actually be a predicted outcome. I don't blame the kid. Yeah, he could be polite, but that option came and went.
What gives Phillips the right to make people move out of his way? What gives him the right to get that close to Sandman banging the drum, and then claim he is a victim?
I do not believe Phillips has the right to get in anybody's face, drum or no drum. Walk around Sandmann if it's clear Sandmann is not going to move. Standing in his face drumming is ridiculous. What point is he trying to make? How does being that aggressive toward a boy diffuse anything? How polite, how considerate is that? No excuse here. He's lucky Sandmann did not react in anger and just push him back. Maybe Sandmann didn't do that because he's a frail looking old man.
Meanwhile, Phillips is getting tomahawk chops and laughter. Not very respectful of elders, but these are kids. Their moral conscience won't come to the forefront while they are part of a crowd of peers. They can get a talk about respect for elders, but, under the circumstances, Phillips put himself in that situation. What did he expect? He expected too much, judging by his post incident interviews.