Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Don't Hit

Yesterday, after leaving my doctor's office, I walked out onto the parking lot. I noticed papers on the ground, that a woman had obviously just dropped. I then noticed her walking right in front of a car, paying no attention to the car but saying, "GET THE FU*# AWAY FROM ME" over and over. Then I noticed a man walking with her. They didn't seem happy. But it all was happening in slow motion for me. (The car was also slow-moving and stopped for her, by the way.)

More and more people seemed to be noticing this couple since they were a little hard to ignore. Her yelling was escalating, and he was arguing back. As he got closer to her , she began hitting him. He only had on one shoe. I noticed this when at one point he had walked away from her, but then ran back and sorta lunged at her.

A woman yelled out, "Somebody call 911!!" So I did. I think about 5 other people did, too.

I am clearly not one to keep a cool head in a crisis. This wasn't even my crisis, but yet after dialing 911, and not hearing it ring, I looked down at my phone and noticed I had dialed 11911 instead. I had to redial at least once and it may have even been twice. Once the operator picked up, I told the man what was happening- some sort of domestic dispute I thought- and I told him the address where we where located. In a very slow voice, the man continued asking me questions, like what did the people look like and what were they wearing. I stood only about 7 car lengths away from the couple as I meticulously described their clothes. Then the operator asked me if anyone had a knife or a gun. I suddenly felt like the tattle tail of the school bullies and realized if they did have a gun or a knife and noticed me, they might get pissed. I felt so frustrated with the 911 operator's calmness and SLOWNESS. By the time we were hanging up the phone, the man of the fighting couple got in his car and sped off. The woman, now abandoned, just stood there in the parking lot as it looked like others were consoling her.

I don't know what happened before I got out there. All I know is that I saw her hitting him, and screaming at him first. She didn't look like the victim of battered woman syndrome. They looked like two low class and ridiculous people having a big fight. But because he was a man, and a big man at that, it seemed like everyone was automatically sympathetic towards her.

So coincidentally, tonight, Chris Brown will be on Larry King. I guess he's there to discuss his infamous blow out with Rihanna. Obviously, none of us know what really happened between the two of them. I guess Chris must have hit her, and I think he's even been convicted of it. I'd really like to hear the whole story. But if she perhaps had hit him first, or done something extreme that provoked him, and he spoke about it publicly, people would probably just get all up in his face about it anyway.

A man should never hit a woman. But a woman shouldn't hit a man either. Didn't we all learn that in kindergarten?

No comments: