On the train ride into town, there was a shout. A kid bolted for the train door. Others grabbed him. It took slow-motion seconds for it to filter in: He'd tried to grab a woman's phone and dart off the train right as the doors were closing. Someone grabbed him. He slipped out, but was outnumbered by other guys trying to stop him from getting away.
I'd rather live in a world where I can use my stuff on the subway and people don't run off with it, so I was one of those guys.
The kid almost made it away a bunch of times. Somebody shouted "He's got a knife", and half the folks who were keeping him hemmed in backed off. Turns out, me and another guy were more evidence based. That is, the kid never did pull a knife, and we never did back off.
A few seconds later, someone else did pull one of those pocket cattle prods, and tried to get the kid's attention with it. Thing is, it may have done more to spook the rest of us than the kid. Who wants to be holding on to someone getting tazed? So a second later, and he had made it to the door.
But a very calm man stepped onto the train then, and all the fight went out of the kid. I didn't see why then, but the next second, he'd taken the kid down, polite and controlled as could be, face on the ground, one wrist in a submission hold. Somehow it worked out that I was the guy keeping the kid's other hand held to the subway car floor, and a knee over his back, just in case the first guy lost control. He didn't. Looking over from that crouch, I was waist level with the other guy, and there was a gun tucked into his belt, and a badge next to it. When he'd come on the train, he'd quietly pulled his shirt aside so the kid could see them. And that's when things calmed down.
I have to say, the plainclothes cop was a perfect gentleman. He talked the kid through it in the same calming tones you'd use on a frightened animal. He let the kid know what was coming before he took him down. And when the kid tried to get out of the submission hold, he didn't budge, he just talked him through that part, too, letting him know to stop struggling in the same gentle tones a mom would comfort a sick child.
A minute or two later, two police in uniform came on the train, handcuffed the kid, and asked for anyone who'd seen the event and was willing to give a statement.
This was a confusing moment for me. You see, all the while I was a kid, I would get harassed by cops and border patrol officers. Long hair, y'know. I met just as many good cops, but it's the other kind that stick in your memory. So holding a kid down by one arm, knee poised over his back, while the officers gratefully asked me to keep holding on while they got the other arm cuffed first, that was weird for me.
The first policeman, he didn't register as such, even with the gun and the badge. He was tucked away in my mind somewhere under "Zen Masters I Have Met".
When the uniformed officers asked him if he could give a statement, he gave his phone number and contact info instead. He was an off-duty cop from the next city south. He was taking the train to the courthouse to get married. Everyone laughed. Hero cop stops robbery peacefully en route to get married. Doesn't break a sweat. Right then, it was a scene out of a movie.
As the train started moving again, there was a cluster of guys standing around, congratulating each other on having stopped the kid. I couldn't feel too happy about it. I'd seen the look in his eyes as he tried to get past me. You could see in that look, the realization that if he didn't get off that train before the cops got there, how his life was taking a turn for the worse. You could see the fading hope. What was missing was a sense that he'd done this. He saw us harassing him. We were the ones who wouldn't leave him alone. The woman who's stuff he'd tried to steal was already forgotten, and it was just us between him and getting away and not having the shittiest day of his life. He looked out and saw 3 or 4 assholes, all bigger than him, who wouldn't let him get away.
So that was this morning as I saw it.
On the one hand, the world's a little closer to being one where we don't have to worry about people taking our stuff on the train.
On the other hand, I saw the look in that kid's eyes.
Poor bastard.
I'd rather live in a world where I can use my stuff on the subway and people don't run off with it, so I was one of those guys.
The kid almost made it away a bunch of times. Somebody shouted "He's got a knife", and half the folks who were keeping him hemmed in backed off. Turns out, me and another guy were more evidence based. That is, the kid never did pull a knife, and we never did back off.
A few seconds later, someone else did pull one of those pocket cattle prods, and tried to get the kid's attention with it. Thing is, it may have done more to spook the rest of us than the kid. Who wants to be holding on to someone getting tazed? So a second later, and he had made it to the door.
But a very calm man stepped onto the train then, and all the fight went out of the kid. I didn't see why then, but the next second, he'd taken the kid down, polite and controlled as could be, face on the ground, one wrist in a submission hold. Somehow it worked out that I was the guy keeping the kid's other hand held to the subway car floor, and a knee over his back, just in case the first guy lost control. He didn't. Looking over from that crouch, I was waist level with the other guy, and there was a gun tucked into his belt, and a badge next to it. When he'd come on the train, he'd quietly pulled his shirt aside so the kid could see them. And that's when things calmed down.
I have to say, the plainclothes cop was a perfect gentleman. He talked the kid through it in the same calming tones you'd use on a frightened animal. He let the kid know what was coming before he took him down. And when the kid tried to get out of the submission hold, he didn't budge, he just talked him through that part, too, letting him know to stop struggling in the same gentle tones a mom would comfort a sick child.
A minute or two later, two police in uniform came on the train, handcuffed the kid, and asked for anyone who'd seen the event and was willing to give a statement.
This was a confusing moment for me. You see, all the while I was a kid, I would get harassed by cops and border patrol officers. Long hair, y'know. I met just as many good cops, but it's the other kind that stick in your memory. So holding a kid down by one arm, knee poised over his back, while the officers gratefully asked me to keep holding on while they got the other arm cuffed first, that was weird for me.
The first policeman, he didn't register as such, even with the gun and the badge. He was tucked away in my mind somewhere under "Zen Masters I Have Met".
When the uniformed officers asked him if he could give a statement, he gave his phone number and contact info instead. He was an off-duty cop from the next city south. He was taking the train to the courthouse to get married. Everyone laughed. Hero cop stops robbery peacefully en route to get married. Doesn't break a sweat. Right then, it was a scene out of a movie.
As the train started moving again, there was a cluster of guys standing around, congratulating each other on having stopped the kid. I couldn't feel too happy about it. I'd seen the look in his eyes as he tried to get past me. You could see in that look, the realization that if he didn't get off that train before the cops got there, how his life was taking a turn for the worse. You could see the fading hope. What was missing was a sense that he'd done this. He saw us harassing him. We were the ones who wouldn't leave him alone. The woman who's stuff he'd tried to steal was already forgotten, and it was just us between him and getting away and not having the shittiest day of his life. He looked out and saw 3 or 4 assholes, all bigger than him, who wouldn't let him get away.
So that was this morning as I saw it.
On the one hand, the world's a little closer to being one where we don't have to worry about people taking our stuff on the train.
On the other hand, I saw the look in that kid's eyes.
Poor bastard.
VIEW 6 of 6 COMMENTS
maike:
There's a confounding conundrum swirling around that vignette, so thanks. I can go back and forth between poor bastard and poor us, foraging in some societal minefield.
lumo:
Mayhap even a scholar 