THAT FRISKY ST. PATRICK

This  morning (Saturday) at 11am I went to my local skanky tire repair center at the end of lower Greenville Avenue to pick up a tire I had had fixed. While I was waiting for them to find the tire, an interracial couple on antique bicycles were hanging out in the tiny cramped parking area, upset that a guy in a pick up truck had tried to run them off the road. They were at the tire center so that someone could call the police. After they placed the call, we talked about what had happened and they were very upset. A few minutes later, while the assistant manager was informing me they had thrown away my tire (??), a silver pickup pulled up and the passenger started yelling obscenities at the husband, a tall black man. He returned volley, and the pickup pulled into the parking area and the two gentlemen agreed to a round of fisticuffes. They started beating the crap out of each other pretty quickly, and the wife jumped in to defend her man. Then the driver of the pickup jumped out and tried to pull them apart. Then two more people jumped into the pile. The initial aggressor, a white male, ran off just as the police arrived. The police started yelling at the black guy, who was heading down the street to find his attacker, who was by now long gone.****Long story short, the police got everybody separated, and started taking statements, including mine. The black guy was very upset and the officer talking to him kept asking him to calm down while his wife kept yelling, “Why aren’t you looking for the guy who beat him up??” The officers told her to shut up, and again asked the husband to calm down. He got even more upset, and asked why they were hassling him instead of his attacker. At that point, the cuffs went on, and he was under arrest. They talked to the driver of the truck, who claimed he really didn’t know Mr. Bad Boy, and the police told him he could leave. By this point there were 6 policemen present. The husband was in the police car, and the wife was crying and screaming, asking to know why her husband was under arrest if he was the one who had been attacked. The police told her they would arrest her too if she didn’t show some respect. One officer told her, “It’s over, go home.” the manager of the tire center started talking back to the cops, and they told her she could not yell at them. She yelled back that they could not arrest her for yelling at them. They just laughed sarcastically and got in their patrol cars and drove off, having never looked for the attacker. But at least the victim was in custody. The wife was sobbing. I offered to give her a ride home and help transport the antique bikes, and she declined. So I went back over to the guy who had been helping me, and said “What are we gonna do about my tire you threw away?”It was a crazy ass St. Patrick’s Day, and it was only 11am.

Tags: police, police violence, St. Patrick, tires