Mad-dogging is the act of staring at someone in a threatening way, which can be a friendly competition or a signal of a threat. It is often practiced by gangs and can lead to violence. In some cases, it has resulted in shootings. Both friendly and sinister staring contests involve psychological and physical challenges.
Fooling means staring at another person, threateningly, for a variety of purposes. The mate could be a form of friendly competition, such as in a staring contest, or it could signal a threat. In some cases, determining the motivation for staring down could be extremely important.
The term insanity comes from the position that two dogs often assume before getting involved in a fight. Sometimes, dogs will try to stare at each other in hopes that one will withdraw or show some form of weakness. With dogs, this usually involves auditory threats like growling or barking. With humans, there is often no verbal element to a crazy event.
While it didn’t get much media attention nationwide, there was a case in July of 2008 in Albuquerque, New Mexico in which Lawrence Vargas, a 23-year-old male, was shot after he and another man stared at each other in crazy style. The suspect in the shooting remained at large a month after the incident.
The case in New Mexico is not the only one in which someone has been shot after an episode of insanity. A month after the Vargas murder, another man was killed in Watsonville, California after police said two groups of individuals were involved in an incident of insanity. In that case, the man who was shot survived after suffering only minor injuries.
A retired NYPD officer, Sgt. Lou Savelli, wrote in a piece for a corrections-based website that mad-dogging is often practiced by gangs. If law enforcement notices this, they should be prepared because it will likely be a precursor to violence.
In some cases, mad-dogging is simply a staring contest between individuals. These types of competitions are common, especially among children. Although they are usually conducted without menacing faces or threats. However, some people engaged in a staring contest may use a pissing technique in an attempt to break the other person’s concentration. Generally, however, these are not real threats.
However, both the friendly stare contests and the more sinisterly crazy ones share some commonalities. First, both are a type of psychological competition between two or more individuals. Second, there is some level of physical challenge involved as well, as the goal is usually to not break eye contact with the other person under any circumstances.
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