To Protect and Serve?

Tonight I watched a man brutally beat another man until he was lying prone in the middle of the road. Cars drove past while one man straddled the other and beat him about the face savagely. A couple of cars even slowed down, I assume, to get a better look. I was on the phone with 911 describing every minute detail: who was doing the beating, what he was wearing, what the victim looked like, what the drunken mother was wearing and screaming as she casually smoked her cigarette and pretended to tear her hair out. I described every detail to a tee to the 911 dispatcher and when I got off the phone, the beating was over. The victim lay in the street presumably bleeding profusely from the face (it was 1:30 in the morning and the street lights aren't so hot here, plus I was hiding behind the blinds for fear of being seen and risk retaliation).

The police arrived a good 15 minutes later, despite my explicit insistence to the 911 operator that the victim was lying IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD. The police sent one officer. One officer to what was a violent crime. The officer spoke to the victim, now awake and crying into the woman's (now known to be his aunt) arms. Then he spoke to the attacker, and of course, my air conditioner kicked in and I couldn't hear what was said. A lot of hand gestures by the attacker, something about "messing with my mom" or "he come 'round here when he's not wanted" junk, and the officer just nodding, doing nothing.

No ambulance came. No backup. No nothing. At the end, everyone went back into the house and the police officer drove away.

I don't get it.

Demented and Sad......But Social

"Saturday, March 24,1984. Shermer High School, Shermer, Illinois, 60062.
Dear Mr. Vernon,
We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. What we did *was* wrong. But we think you're crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. What do you care? You see us as you want to see us - in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal. Correct? That's the way we saw each other at 7:00 this morning. We were brainwashed."



Thanks for the memories........


John Hughes, pioneer of Teen Angst 1950-2009

"Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. But we think you're crazy to make an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us... In the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain...
...and an athlete...
...and a basket case...
...a princess...
...and a criminal...
Does that answer your question?... Sincerely yours, the Breakfast Club."

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