To use a Grey's Anatomy reference, this post is going to be dark and gloomy. You've been warned.
I just turned around from my desk to look through our glass front door at our office. Outside was a teenage boy walking in the driving rain. He was wearing familiar colors in his khaki pants, white polo shirt, and around his waist was a goldenrod sweatshirt. Because of those colors he must attend a school down the street. I pass the school and the students all the time. This school is not a regular high school it's one that kids are sent to when they need to reconstruct their habits and attendance. AKA, they've been kicked out of public school.
As I watch him walking I fear for him that some mean, hungry, down and out character will approach him and rob him for just a couple bucks. He looks defenseless and alone.
I have had some feelings like this for myself when I'm in an unfamiliar place and I could be caught off guard from someone who has spent many days waiting for a unsuspecting victim to come along and rob them of their money, dignity or life. As a mother I am always distracted with this fear. To keep the fear out is too difficult so I embrace it and trust it with my life. Things happen so often the news can hardly keep up some days.
Such as the below experience...
Charleen (my
stepmother) and I were driving in her car along N.
Tryon the other day and we happened to witness a man being beaten senseless. Since we were in her car Charleen had the instinct to pull over and call the cops and wait there to make sure this person was caught or at least try to get a good look at him.
The feet of the person he was beating were dangling in the street as if he was
unconscious and couldn't move or fight back. The man on top of him was swinging relentlessly and Charleen feared this man's feet were going to be run over by a oncoming car and she nearly cried at the thought of it.
Dozens of people were around. None stood to watch but dozens saw this and did nothing. No one tried to stop him! It was unbelievable.
The beater moved the victim's feet from the street curb and continued to assault him. Then, as if his energy was spent or his mission accomplished, the beater stood and began to walk away. Just as he rounded the corner on foot away from N.
Tryon, a police car drove up, probably looked at the beater's face and continued to drive away.
This infuriated me! We called the cops, here was a cop, and he didn't even stop. Didn't he know? He can still catch the
assaulter! I wanted so badly for this man to go to jail he risked the life of this victim and for what, drugs? If that's all he got caught for I would have been satisfied. The cop kept driving and we caught up with him by car about a mile away. He hadn't heard the
bulletin over the dispatch or at least he didn't reference it when he spoke with us. He went to the scene and OF COURSE the man was gone and so was the victim.
Very strange.
I know this stuff happens every day in a lot of places. But, we were probably the only people stopped and trying to help this victim but, to no avail.
