Hitting Cop, Dumb.

pstrong pI'm no journalist./p pIts this "Hit A cop,br / Pay The Price Storybr / that made me write this. /p/strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Joe. B./p pA person goes “Tilt” on sixth and Market Street. /p pWednesday, August, 15, 2001. I was returning from Henry George School of Social Science at 55 New Montgomery.br / br /Guess its the wrong day or the classes met earier, I don’t know./p pWhile walking back up Market Street toward my home there is another protest about mistreatmentbr / of women in Columbia./p p A yellow flyer is given to me while walking. /p pSoon as my Apartment buildingbr / looms near my eyes br /silently record images, sights, sounds in a rapid jumble./p pTwo people on the ground under my building one lay unmoving in the street.br / br /A third person in the street roughly assisted into a police van, as police sirens scream past the area where the incident happened coming from every direction. /p pI don’t know if its a shooting or a traffic accident?/p pPolice in controlled panic on foot, in cars not exactly blocking people’s way but br /their strong presence make me pause./p pCops swarm like angry hornets hovering over and near one of their own. /p pMumblings, loud, low talk, whispers, and traffic jams in a frenetic mix of concern, constination, awe, anger, curiosity, and fear. /p pI hear from br /a bystander or street folk and on what happened.br / br /B:“HE WALKED UP TO HER AND PUNCHED HER!”br / br /POOR Magazine:“WHAT?”br / B:“He walked up there and just punched her.”br / br /PM:”Nothing-just...” br /br / B:“Nothin’, that’s what all these cops are here for, that’s what’s this is about?” br /br / B:“NO REASON.”br / br /PM:“You mean he went off-just nuts?br / br /B:“And That’s a Woman Too, They (police) was running people with those sticks. (police baton’s, or night stick)./p pA few black women talk about the incident have lots to say until a young, blond cop in his blue uniform asked br /“Did you see or hear what happened, because you were talking about it a lot.”/p pThe women clam up moving away as the cop goes back to fellow officers. Meanwhile in this socalled reporters on words “I’m tryin’to git home but the cop asking the two black women what they’ve seen or heard changed that./p pI take this as a signal crossing the street then rethink ”Typing this up is what should be done even if I don’t have all the facts. /p pPM:I don’t know what happened yet. br /All I know is somebody hit a cop and the cops went nuts,br / or someone hit a lady, br /then hit a cop, and the cops went nuts. /p pbAll I know is... br /looks like a lot-a’ cops went nuts./b/p pWhile waiting for a bus to write up this story another person looking like a tourist, or an a born ‘n raised San Franciscan spoke up. /p pbr /T/SF:“It was a lady cop, some guy on the street hit her.br / br /PM:"A lady cop.”br / T/SF:“Yeah, and her partner, a guy had a billybr / br / club or night stick and and beat him down.” br //p pPM:“That’s why the cops went nuts - one of their own... ok.br /” T/SF: “Exactly, did you see ‘em they all went right past here, they didn’tbr / stop right here, fifteen cop cars came zooming by.”br / br /PM:“Well, thank you." I said to the man as I got on the bus heading to Ninth and Mission Street to file this report./p pIn POOR Magazine’s office turned on the radio to a KCBS news to hear about a female police officer punched in the face was being taken to General Hospital. /p pPolice have arrested a suspect in the attack.br / She is said to have suffered facial and nasal injuries./p pI know its a jumble of mistakes but it’ll be on the web before br / midnight I just hope other folks on the web who were at the scene can supply POOR Magazine with all the missingbr / bits and beware other law enforcement entities are probably webchecking too./p pI couldn’t think for a few minutes letting it sink in. Random, irrational violence on a police officer. The fact the officer is female makes no difference except by a marginal nuance. /p pIf this person hates both police and woman and had a misogynist two-for one punch out this could seen as a larger problem. /p pThe random brutality is a question that must be dealt with and thisbr / doesn’t mean lock ‘em up-throw-away-key if that happens this could be the tip of br /an angry melting iceburg of more random acts of violence./p pThen again I'm John Shmoo public, what do I know?/p pThis is one confused, tired socalled reporter sayingbr / stay alert, be safe and keep your soft and wetware fluidic. good night./p pPlease donate what can to Poor Magazine orbr / C/0 Ask Joe at 255 9th St. Street,br / San Francisco, CA. 94103 USA/p pFor Joe only my snail mail:br / PO Box 1230 #645br / Market St.br / San Francisco, CA 94102br / Email: a href="mailto:askjoe@poormagazine.org"askjoe@poormagazine.org/abr / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p