to do nothing

At 3 AM I woke to the sound of children screaming in the street. I woke BC and he went to check. I heard the front door open and close twice.  The third time what I heard was our end of BC's 911 call.

A man had come out of the dark following the 3 young kids and bleeding woman. BC had come out to ask if they needed help. BC asked the man if everything was okay. The man responded with a punch that hit BC on the side of the face and dropped him instantly.

BC was not out looking for trouble at 3 AM when he left the safety of our bed.  He was not duty sworn to protect and serve. He wasn't armed or trained or ready with back-up.  He was doing what anyone would do, what anyone should do; he was offering help to someone in need.

The police arrived behind 3 blazing spot lights shining down 10th. Captured in the cold beam was the woman barefoot, bruised, eye swollen shut, and bleeding from a head wound.  Beside her 3 young kids not dressed for the winter weather.

From the first moment the police talked with BC they treated him poorly. They set the tone. They were dismissive of his injuries and story. Telling us, "Well, we don't know there was an assault; we didn't see it. You can make a report if you want but then you will have to file that with the prosecutor's office." A clear effort to insert a barrier to action on the officer's part.

We were asked multiple times if we really wanted to file charges every time we said YES. Reminded twice it was only simple assault. Again, an attempt on the officer's part to discourage BC from filing charges.

They spoke with the woman.  She was uncooperative other than to give the address of the house she had fled.

We had 2 people out in the street bleeding. "You can't make someone be a victim," the officer told me. Same officer who liked to remind me when I pressed for some sort of action on their part that they don't know if that man assaulted BC because they didn't see it. 

"You know how ridiculous that is?" I responded. "We aren't in a court don't pretend you don't know that guy hit my husband. We are all more intelligent than that."

Seven police officers proceed to knock loudly on the door of the neighbor's house. The woman and the kids had returned inside with him. The man refused the police entry so they tried to leave.

It was me questioning them that held them up. I was told they can't go in without an active threat to someone. Without that they had no reason to force their way in.

Okay, understandable but then they got one.

While I was questioning them the man shirtless burst out the front door into the yard.  The 7 armed officers suddenly decided to stay. They even called 3 more officers to help them. The cars blocked the street.

It seemed they were about to become more serious about the threat. Instead, I watched 10 huge cops stand outside the small fenced yard collectively trying to open the gate from the other side and failing to do so.

I was seriously about to go help them at the risk of being shot when a man in a truck pulled up.  He ran across the street, jumped the fence, and grabbed the man now openly threatening to beat and fight the cops and "everyone in the house" into the house shutting the door behind them.

The police returned to pounding on the door.  Then they gave up a second time and left.

But before all 10 trained, armed, fit men left I had another long conversation with 2 of the officers because their story kept changing.

At first they couldn't go in because there was not an active threat.  Need I remind you THEY didn't see BC get punched so they don't know why he was bleeding.  The woman refused to talk so she was totally fine.

Then there was a threat but they told me it didn't seem safe (now it was too big of a threat) to them to go because they didn't know what was in there. And yet they all seemed pretty shocked that I was pissed they were taking all their big guys and big guns and leaving us here next to what they felt was a dangerous situation. Too dangerous for them but not us?

I shared my disappointment in them. They were sorry I felt that way.

What was most disturbing was 15 minutes after the officers left we stood in our front room, too afraid to let our guard down, watching a woman ushering 6 small children out of the house and into the van parked in front of our house. The whole time there had been children trapped inside the house as the man threatened in front of the police to beat them all. The police had left them there and those kids knew it.

The police refused to act because they didn't know what was in the house. BUT they did know, and what they didn't know, you can never know.

For the record, I didn't know what was waiting for me the day I ran into a house to protect small children as my neighbor's boyfriend held a knife out threatening them. I didn't NOT act because of the unknown, I acted on the known. There were kids in danger. My job was obvious; get them out at any cost. I don't want to be someone who wouldn't see it like that.

I didn't know what was wrong with the lady slumped in the gutter across the street when I approached her. I didn't know what I would find climbing into an over turned truck at the end of the street to stop the bleeding from the driver's gushing wounds.

To the Officers:

I'm sorry one your own was killed this week.

I'm sorry one of you felt justified enough in that fresh wound to say to me that I should consider that you have a family you want to go home to while I stood there pleading with for you stay and protect my family and the family trapped inside the house with that man.

I'm sorry you feel we should live in a world where we should do nothing. I'm sorry you are so scared to do what you know is right, that you don't do it.

I am sorry the assholes are braver than the heroes.

I'm sorry you feel helpless.

You told us, next time don't do anything. Call us. I told you that was impractical, and you agreed.

In the night a child cried out for help.  In the street a woman was beaten and bleeding. The man who went to help them was struck in the face and knocked to the ground.  The men trained to help were called by the good guys. Nothing happened to the bad guy.  The woman and children where left in harm's way.  And the good man who tried to help them was treated like shit by the men who refused to do anything.