6. Fist Fight
Yesterday afternoon, around 3:30 as I was coming home from running some errands, traffic was a little backed up at a 4-way stop, nearish my house. That is unusual for that intersection & for that time of day.
I noticed a group of teenagers on the corner/at one house in particular and something was strange. I couldn't tell if they were fighting or goofing around or what. Then I saw a girl run up to one of the guys (who was bent over and looked like his eyes were in pain) and gave him a cup of water which he tried to rinse his eyes off with. Hmmm....was there a fight or something previously? Did he get something in his eyes?
But traffic was still stopped and I couldn't figure it out. Then some of the kids starting crossing the street - willy nilly - in front of my car, in front of other cars...the pattern (as usual) guys go first, and girls run after trying to intervene, stop them, or something.
I look to my left and there's a single guy yelling (back) at two of the first guys in particular. One of the guys from the Right (I'll call them righties & lefty) stood in the middle of the opposing lane of traffic and, from the back anyway, it looked as if he was going to pee in the street. Lefty was then yelling & taunting him and I thought "Oh I see, this is a literal pissing match."
But then two Righties got on each side of Lefty and it looked like a fist fight was brewing. My heart started racing and I was getting nervous. I was a spectator (as were the rest of the traffic) in a very weird, middle-of-the-day situation. Then the punches started flying. They sort of moved up the avenue in the middle of the street and I got out my cell phone. WTF is wrong with people? It is not okay for this behavior to happen. I don't care where it is. About this time I notice MANY other people getting out their cell phones, including one of the girls with the Righties.
The guy in front of me (mid-40s, Subaru driving) was clearly annoyed and made a quick left turn up the Avenue while blaring his horn. I don't know if he thought teenagers are like bears and you can scare them off, or what...it did startle them, that's for sure.) And then I was through the intersection. The gawkers were everywhere, I counted 8-10 people on their cell phones.
I didn't get to talk to a dispatcher until I was already in my garage, but I told them what I saw and they said, yeah, we've gotten a lot of calls about that (!) and a couple of squads were on the way. Seconds later I heard sirens.
It really shook me up. I mean, I'm not used to seeing such overt violence on my way home! It threw me for a loop. Quite frankly if I still lived in my old neighborhood (Hi Anna!) it probably wouldn't have surprised me, but I haven't seen anything like that here. I'm not sure if it matters or not...but the "righties" were black and the "lefty" was white. Since I don't know how/why things started it's hard to know if it's race related or just stupid teenagers. Makes ya wonder though.
I noticed a group of teenagers on the corner/at one house in particular and something was strange. I couldn't tell if they were fighting or goofing around or what. Then I saw a girl run up to one of the guys (who was bent over and looked like his eyes were in pain) and gave him a cup of water which he tried to rinse his eyes off with. Hmmm....was there a fight or something previously? Did he get something in his eyes?
But traffic was still stopped and I couldn't figure it out. Then some of the kids starting crossing the street - willy nilly - in front of my car, in front of other cars...the pattern (as usual) guys go first, and girls run after trying to intervene, stop them, or something.
I look to my left and there's a single guy yelling (back) at two of the first guys in particular. One of the guys from the Right (I'll call them righties & lefty) stood in the middle of the opposing lane of traffic and, from the back anyway, it looked as if he was going to pee in the street. Lefty was then yelling & taunting him and I thought "Oh I see, this is a literal pissing match."
But then two Righties got on each side of Lefty and it looked like a fist fight was brewing. My heart started racing and I was getting nervous. I was a spectator (as were the rest of the traffic) in a very weird, middle-of-the-day situation. Then the punches started flying. They sort of moved up the avenue in the middle of the street and I got out my cell phone. WTF is wrong with people? It is not okay for this behavior to happen. I don't care where it is. About this time I notice MANY other people getting out their cell phones, including one of the girls with the Righties.
The guy in front of me (mid-40s, Subaru driving) was clearly annoyed and made a quick left turn up the Avenue while blaring his horn. I don't know if he thought teenagers are like bears and you can scare them off, or what...it did startle them, that's for sure.) And then I was through the intersection. The gawkers were everywhere, I counted 8-10 people on their cell phones.
I didn't get to talk to a dispatcher until I was already in my garage, but I told them what I saw and they said, yeah, we've gotten a lot of calls about that (!) and a couple of squads were on the way. Seconds later I heard sirens.
It really shook me up. I mean, I'm not used to seeing such overt violence on my way home! It threw me for a loop. Quite frankly if I still lived in my old neighborhood (Hi Anna!) it probably wouldn't have surprised me, but I haven't seen anything like that here. I'm not sure if it matters or not...but the "righties" were black and the "lefty" was white. Since I don't know how/why things started it's hard to know if it's race related or just stupid teenagers. Makes ya wonder though.
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