A Beat Down
After the discussion about my love for, and SF’s lack of, frozen yogurt at diner club this Wednesday, Alyssa and I decided upon our walk home, to stop off at the closest shop selling the nearest facsimile of frozen yoghurt, which in this case happened to be McDonalds at Stanyan and Haight.
I opted for the parfait (more of a custard really) and I believe Alyssa purchased a cone of soft serve, though I can’t honestly remember due both to my focus and fixation upon my own parfait and because of the events that occurred as we were exiting McDonalds.
Just outside the door, as we exited, was a man who was arguing with some youths. They were talking trash and he was dishing it back. At the time I thought it was just a group of miscellaneous people giving each other a hard time, nothing more. When we were about 15 feet from the door I heard one of the youths say something to the effect of, “Why’d you have to pull a knife, we didn't do anything” which of course got my attention. I looked over and didn’t see a knife but I realized that the situation was a little more serious than I had initially suspected. The man at the door was apparently keeping at bay about a dozen youths who were intent on giving him a hard time.
How hard I was just about to discover. The man at the door made a break for it when, in the blink or an eye things when from trash talking to full scale violence. The youths descended on him, quickly driving him to the ground where they proceeded to stomp and jump on him. And then I did something dumb, something very, very dumb. I stepped in. I grabbed the nearest youth and pulled him off the guy on the ground. Out of the corner of my eye I saw another young man, apparently also uninvolved, do the same thing, trying to drive the kids off the guy. The youths turned on him and just as quickly beat him to the ground stomped and jumped on him as well. The first man managed to run off as attention was distracted and I came to my senses, realized that I was in a very bad place and that I was putting not just myself in danger but Alyssa as well with my attempt at heroism. I crossed the street with her, called SFPD and tailed a couple of the youths as we walked down the street. I lost the youths about a quarter mile away and gave up on the cops showing up.
I did later run into a police cruiser, flagged them down and spoke with the police. They could find none of the perpetrators (which is no surprise) but neither could the find either of the victims. Apparently I was the only one who called the police.
All of this really made me focus on my own behavior during stressful situations. And my conclusion is that I always do the wrong thing. It is really easy to say stopping for the car accident on the 101 a few months back or stepping into a brawl on Wednesday, were the ‘Right’ thing to do from a detached or Romantic point of view. But from a personal standpoint it absolutely is not. I could just as easily have been the second man who stepped in and be writing about the concussion I received or a permanently damaged cornea.
And for what? To what effect? Those youths had their fun and I’m not sure just how much good I did. The cops found no one, so justice of course wasn’t served. Everyone lost and I was lucky to have escaped unharmed.
Amanda had mentioned previously that during the car incident I did the exact wrong thing, and I think I agree with her. Cars were swerving and crashing all over the place. And getting out of a reinforced steel cage to see how everyone else was just put me in significantly greater danger. The right thing to have done was to call the cops and continue driving. The motorcycle that ran into Jackie’s Mini could have just as easily slammed into me or even worse, injured her (not really since she was smart enough to stay inside the car). I’m still surprised no one was killed in that car incident. And by pulling over, what sort of effect did I expect to have? I doubt any intervention I could have provided would have saved any ones life especially with trained professionals five minutes away.
After giving up on the cops I walked down to Jenny’s to borrow her car for the next morning. After hanging out briefly I walked home, completely forgetting that I went there to pick up the car.
The whole situation broght back the Goetz Shooting in New York in ’84.
I opted for the parfait (more of a custard really) and I believe Alyssa purchased a cone of soft serve, though I can’t honestly remember due both to my focus and fixation upon my own parfait and because of the events that occurred as we were exiting McDonalds.
Just outside the door, as we exited, was a man who was arguing with some youths. They were talking trash and he was dishing it back. At the time I thought it was just a group of miscellaneous people giving each other a hard time, nothing more. When we were about 15 feet from the door I heard one of the youths say something to the effect of, “Why’d you have to pull a knife, we didn't do anything” which of course got my attention. I looked over and didn’t see a knife but I realized that the situation was a little more serious than I had initially suspected. The man at the door was apparently keeping at bay about a dozen youths who were intent on giving him a hard time.
How hard I was just about to discover. The man at the door made a break for it when, in the blink or an eye things when from trash talking to full scale violence. The youths descended on him, quickly driving him to the ground where they proceeded to stomp and jump on him. And then I did something dumb, something very, very dumb. I stepped in. I grabbed the nearest youth and pulled him off the guy on the ground. Out of the corner of my eye I saw another young man, apparently also uninvolved, do the same thing, trying to drive the kids off the guy. The youths turned on him and just as quickly beat him to the ground stomped and jumped on him as well. The first man managed to run off as attention was distracted and I came to my senses, realized that I was in a very bad place and that I was putting not just myself in danger but Alyssa as well with my attempt at heroism. I crossed the street with her, called SFPD and tailed a couple of the youths as we walked down the street. I lost the youths about a quarter mile away and gave up on the cops showing up.
I did later run into a police cruiser, flagged them down and spoke with the police. They could find none of the perpetrators (which is no surprise) but neither could the find either of the victims. Apparently I was the only one who called the police.
All of this really made me focus on my own behavior during stressful situations. And my conclusion is that I always do the wrong thing. It is really easy to say stopping for the car accident on the 101 a few months back or stepping into a brawl on Wednesday, were the ‘Right’ thing to do from a detached or Romantic point of view. But from a personal standpoint it absolutely is not. I could just as easily have been the second man who stepped in and be writing about the concussion I received or a permanently damaged cornea.
And for what? To what effect? Those youths had their fun and I’m not sure just how much good I did. The cops found no one, so justice of course wasn’t served. Everyone lost and I was lucky to have escaped unharmed.
Amanda had mentioned previously that during the car incident I did the exact wrong thing, and I think I agree with her. Cars were swerving and crashing all over the place. And getting out of a reinforced steel cage to see how everyone else was just put me in significantly greater danger. The right thing to have done was to call the cops and continue driving. The motorcycle that ran into Jackie’s Mini could have just as easily slammed into me or even worse, injured her (not really since she was smart enough to stay inside the car). I’m still surprised no one was killed in that car incident. And by pulling over, what sort of effect did I expect to have? I doubt any intervention I could have provided would have saved any ones life especially with trained professionals five minutes away.
After giving up on the cops I walked down to Jenny’s to borrow her car for the next morning. After hanging out briefly I walked home, completely forgetting that I went there to pick up the car.
The whole situation broght back the Goetz Shooting in New York in ’84.
posted by Yen at
11:37 AM
4 Comments:
Before I get on topic, why does the Goetz link appear on a webpage called "awesome 80s"? It doesn't come across as awesome to me, at least not in the sense that I use the word "awesome".
Although attempting to be the hero may not be the smartest thing to do, I can see several reasons to do so. You may save a life. You may convince the kids not to do such things, since you perhaps may not shoot them next time they do something stupid, someone like Groetz might.
Or you might set up a pattern of revenge. Or (I believe this is the reason people say not to be a hero) is that you're more likely to get yourself killed than to be able to help anyone.
Wikipedia has a lot to say about Goetz as well:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Goetz
By
Stanza, at 10:58 AM
The website “awesome 80s” is sort of a pop culture site chronicling the ‘awesome 880's even in their non-awesomeness Both events in the news, such as the Goetz case, and who won miss America in 1983 are included in the site.
I used that link as opposed to the wikipedia link because I feel the wikipedia article isn’t as balanced. The case caused quite a bit of controversy and I feel the wikipedia article didn’t convey that and rather tried to defend Goetz. While I am of my own opinion on the justification surrounding the case I thought something more balanced was in order. I’ll let the reader research it if they would like and come to their own conclusions
By
Yen, at 1:25 PM
dammit ian, you are going to get yourself hurt or in trouble one of these days! no more mr. hero.
in all the first aid/cpr classes i have taken, the first thing you are taught to do is to assess the scene- the biggest reason being that you are supposed to make sure that you aren't going to just add to the number of victims by getting injured yourself. having said that, people are people and no one really knows what their impulse is going to be when they see someone who might be in danger.
and having said THAT, your impulse, mr. hodur, seems to be leaning towards jumping in to help, and therefore risking getting hurt.
my conclusion is that we are going to have to lock you up in your room so you don't keep running across people in need!!! don't worry, we will allow you to have a copy of dune to keep you entertained.
By
Anonymous, at 12:08 PM
Hey.
You missed my e-mail about the new location of the blog:
http://www.manthefifty.com
By
travis, at 10:11 AM
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