The other night I was walking around the neighborhood with the hubby. It's late at night, probably around 10pm or so. I heard a man yelling but paid no attention and then the hubby says "oh my gosh look it! That guy is totally pushing that girl around!" So I look and sure enough across the street I see a guy yelling angrily and shoving her around. I heard the girl yell and it looked like she was crying. They were walking through an empty parking lot, towards a car. The man continued yelling, I got scared so I told the hubby we should call the cops. He replied, "For what, by the time they come the couple will be gone." I continued to argue on calling the police and he kept arguing against it but I didn't feel comfortable just standing by. I started explaining that something serious could happen to her & what if he really HURT her?
So the question is...what would you do? When you see someone being abusive to another person or being aggressive, do you act on it? Do you step in to help or call the police...something! Or do you simply duck your head and continue on with your day?
A women is getting pushed around and instead of calling the cops you duck ur head and keep walking away. If that girl ends up dead or seriously hurt wouldn't you feel guilty?
I may be going to extremes here, I can see his side of thought. We are across the street so we can't see things clearly, he hasn't hit her, she's the idiot sticking around with the abusive guy, the cops take forever to arrive to a scene when you need them, and it's not like we can see the license plates to have the cops follow the car. But I just can't help but go into panic mode.
Maybe I've been working with domestic violence vicitims for too many years, maybe as a girl I just want to look out for my fellow ladies, maybe...I dunno but the thought of somebody getting hurt and me not doing anything about it just kills me. I've had some of our clients go missing and we find weeks later that the guy found them and took them out of the U.S. I've had men try to beat down our doors to get to their wives that are in counseling sessions, I've seen women cry and pour their hearts out & not have a clue as to how to make things stop or not know where to go. It's horrible to see a woman shrink herself into an insignificant object and still try to put on a brave face for her kids.
Another example: A couple months ago I heard shouting in the apartment in front of us. The 17 year old boy and his girlfriend had just come home from the hospital with their new baby about 2 weeks ago. I heard the 17 year old yelling at the girl saying how she ruined his life and I heard her screaming for help. Then I hear dad yelling at the son to get off her and then there's a bunch of pounding and screaming. Now I see 4 people come out of their apartments to see what's going on...I heard nobody say a word about calling the police. So I automatically think "there's a newborn in the home, the guy is going crazy, the girl is yelling for help...time to call the cops" So I did. I called, gave them the information to the apartments, explained the situation and gave my information in case they needed to talk to me when they got here. Well cops arrived while the boy is still yelling and they charged in & I saw them take him out of the house handcuffed.
Now some people told me I should have just left it alone, if dad was there to handle it but that just was not an option for me. There is a newborn baby that could get hurt, obviously dad couldn't handle him because the girl would start yelling for help from time to time, and the yelling and pounding went on for a good 15 minutes before the cops got there and stopped it. You can NEVER be too safe! How people can come to "watch the show" but not want to get involved enough to make a call to the police is BEYOND my understanding.
All I know is if I hear/see someone in danger, you best believe I will stand in or call the police...I do what I can to help others, even when they aren't brave enough to ask for the help.
I agree very true there's more to life then just thinking of our self and helping others.
ReplyDelete