Intervention...
Jul. 13th, 2008 01:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
milktreeI was woken up last night at about 3:30 in the morning by shouting on the street.
I was kinda groggy so it took me a while to figure out what was going on, but it sounded a lot like a man and a woman were having a fight, she was walking, and he was following her in his car. I'm not sure if, "Get in the car, woman!" was one of the things he said, but it would have fit. They were shouting a lot, making a lot of noise, and it wasn't a typical two sided fight, it sounded more like she was trying to get away from him, and he wasn't getting the clue, hassling her and stuff. ("and stuff" is vague because I had been woken up and I was fuzzy.)
I considered calling the police and telling them there was a woman being harassed on my street and I thought she might be in danger, but by the time I'd gotten to that part of the thought process and found my phone he seemed to be satisfied with his hassling and zoomed off.
This would have been just another example of bad behavior from the folks from the 'hood (the housing project down the street from me) except that about 5 minutes later I heard what sounded like the woman screaming like she was being attacked. It sounded like they were too far away for me to really even identify which street they were on, although they were probably still on my street, just farther down.
The screaming stopped after 10 seconds or so. I have no idea if that means he killed her, dragged her into his car, or if he got spooked by her screaming and left.
My question (not really, it's rhetorical) is: What could/should I have done differently? Anything?
I had the capability to intervene when they were outside my house in such a way that was quite unlikely to get me hurt (except for potentially ringing ears). It would have made him go away, and I could have offered to call the cops or a cab for her. But depending on their personalities, it might have made things worse for her later, and might have made things worse for me later too. Calling the police would probably have been the best answer because they're anonymous and less likely to provoke a "get the fuck out of my business" reaction. But ... um... I couldn't wake up and find the phone fast enough. Maybe it would have been a good idea anyway just to have their presence shown or something.
I was kinda groggy so it took me a while to figure out what was going on, but it sounded a lot like a man and a woman were having a fight, she was walking, and he was following her in his car. I'm not sure if, "Get in the car, woman!" was one of the things he said, but it would have fit. They were shouting a lot, making a lot of noise, and it wasn't a typical two sided fight, it sounded more like she was trying to get away from him, and he wasn't getting the clue, hassling her and stuff. ("and stuff" is vague because I had been woken up and I was fuzzy.)
I considered calling the police and telling them there was a woman being harassed on my street and I thought she might be in danger, but by the time I'd gotten to that part of the thought process and found my phone he seemed to be satisfied with his hassling and zoomed off.
This would have been just another example of bad behavior from the folks from the 'hood (the housing project down the street from me) except that about 5 minutes later I heard what sounded like the woman screaming like she was being attacked. It sounded like they were too far away for me to really even identify which street they were on, although they were probably still on my street, just farther down.
The screaming stopped after 10 seconds or so. I have no idea if that means he killed her, dragged her into his car, or if he got spooked by her screaming and left.
My question (not really, it's rhetorical) is: What could/should I have done differently? Anything?
I had the capability to intervene when they were outside my house in such a way that was quite unlikely to get me hurt (except for potentially ringing ears). It would have made him go away, and I could have offered to call the cops or a cab for her. But depending on their personalities, it might have made things worse for her later, and might have made things worse for me later too. Calling the police would probably have been the best answer because they're anonymous and less likely to provoke a "get the fuck out of my business" reaction. But ... um... I couldn't wake up and find the phone fast enough. Maybe it would have been a good idea anyway just to have their presence shown or something.
