overheard in a conversation in my head
“oh man…oh man…ummm… uhhh…what do I do?”
the punch
On the way to work this past week I saw a car accident in the middle of the intersection while waiting at the stop light. There was a good amount of damage to each car but neither was totaled. As I was awaiting for the light to turn green, one of the guys in the accident got out of his car and punched the other guy through the window. I was in shock. I didn’t know what to do. Do I call 911? Do I get out of the car? Do I drive off and act like nothing happened? What do I do?
helpless
I felt helpless because the only thing you can do is call 911 and hope the police show up before any more damage is inflicted. I’m not a superhero or vigilante. I don’t have any gadgets in my car that would stop someone from violence. It would be nice if I had a few ninja stars or nun chucks but even then I wouldn’t know how to use them. I thought about beeping my horn but that won’t save someone. I wasn’t in the nicest part of the city either.
do I snitch?
It’s been said snitches get stitches. Was I prepared to be a snitch? If I call 911 I would be a snitch. Then this guy is going to hunt down me and my family to exact revenge. I would have to be in the witness protection program and relocate my family. I also don’t want to have to identify this guy in a police line up. The guys in lineups look so intimidating. I don’t want to do that. I don’t want the pressure of picking the wrong guy in a police line up and I end up putting the wrong person in jail. The guilt would tear me apart. Then I would have 2 guys after me and my family.
jury duty in my head
I even got to thinking that I was going to have to be a key witness in this case even though it was a small incident. I thought I was going to have to take the stand and recount what happened. I thought there would be a jury process, and this would become a high profile case, and I would be the focal point of it. It would be all over CNN. I didn’t want to answer questions by the defense and prosecution team. I don’t want to be cross examined by our flawed legal system. I wish I didn’t see it. I hope there was someone else who called 911 or that there was an intersection camera that taped the whole thing.
the call
I ended up placing the call to 911 and the operator stated, “911 what’s your emergency?’’. I told them I saw a car accident and a guy punching another person in a car. Not only did this guy get in a car accident but he also almost got knocked out. Talk about injury to insult. I wasn’t good at explaining what happened. All I wanted her to do was send a police car before things started to escalate. The operator seemed bothered by my call. Being a 911 phone operator would be a tough job. You never answer the phone expecting to hear good news. All day the operator is hearing the most heinous and vile acts on a daily basis. It seemed like she was rolling her eyes as I was telling her I saw a car accident and a fight, like call me back when you have some real juicy stuff. She seemed unimpressed by my car accident and guy getting punched story.
pulling back the curtains
Mindaugas Kuzminskas was never drafted to the NBA but did sign with the New York Knicks in 2016. On 12 January 2017, he scored a season-high 19 points in a 104–89 win over the Chicago Bulls. He played only one season in the NBA because the next year he was waived to make room for Joakim Noah. Currently, he plays in the Lithuanian basketball league.
doogie howser moment
I guess the guy who got punched in the face could’ve drove his car off. If I got hit in the face I would’ve drove off, this guy just sat in his car. Who am I kidding? I would’ve passively aggressively drove into the guy’s car more causing more damage or cried. When in doubt call 911 and flee the scene if you don’t have gadgets like Batman, but if you do, be a superhero and save the day.