I generally like to give people the benefit of the doubt.  But after this afternoon... I am not sure what kind of society I am living in where it is okay to ignore certain situations.

Less than an hour ago Rob and I went and grabbed a late lunch at Moe's.  As we are eating our food we notice this girl walk back and forth in front of the window about 3 times.  All at once a table of older teenagers hopped up and ran towards the door.  As did my husband.  I turned around in time to see what appeared to be a fight.  About a minute later my husband came back in and had his phone out to call the police.  He witnessed a man holding a woman by her wrists (the same woman that was walking back and forth).  Told the man to let go of the woman.  She walked away, came back and hit the guy on the head.  Essentially it was a dispute of some kind.

Rob called the police.  Told them what he saw and then we carried on with our meal.

What dumbfounded both him and me... was that nobody was going to step in and stop the dispute.  Obviously there is no telling what actually happened (one of the Moe's employees stated he saw the woman start the fight by throwing a cup of water on the guy) and I'm not going to speculate on who was or wasn't at fault.  But a crowd of teenage boys rushed to the window... to watch.  The Moe's employee was out there doing something... but just watched.  It was my husband that stepped in and told the guy to let go of the woman.  My husband that called the police.  My husband was the only person to step in and break the fight up.

Since when are we a society where we just sit back and watch stuff like that go down and don't step in to help?  Since when is it okay to just be a bystander when you see a domestic dispute like that?

Do we wait until it gets worse and someone is seriously hurt?  Do we wait until help is asked for?  Even then do we do anything?

Come on people.. I'd like to think better, of everyone.

(On another note.. it took the police 20 minutes to respond to the mall of all places... thank goodness it didn't escalate any more.  Something wrong with that picture!)

I generally like to give people the benefit of the doubt.  But after this afternoon... I am not sure what kind of society I am living in whe...

So I had a situation this evening that has left me wondering what everyone else would do...

This evening I tackled the crazy amounts of laundry that had piled up and needed done ($18 later.. but that's another story).  The apartments I live in have a gym/laundry facility on the other side of the complex.  They are two different rooms with the laundry room nestled in the corner of the gym but open via windows to the whole building.  If that makes any sense.  Anyway, I was picking up the last of my laundry and I could hear this commotion coming from out in the gym area.  It's a small gym (couple treadmills, an elliptical, some bikes and lifting equipment sum it up) and there was only a couple of people in the whole building (me, another guy doing laundry, a 5 or 6 year old, a man and a woman [I believe were with said child]), so it was pretty obvious where it was coming from.  The man was yelling and cursing at the little boy.  I'm not sure what exactly was going on.  The child was crying and the man was telling him he had to stay on the treadmill.  It seemed a little inappropriate for public but I didn't see the man touch the child (thank goodness) so I didn't interfere.

When I went to go load my car.. the other man that had been doing laundry was outside smoking a cigarette.  I was mumbling something when I came outside, a bit upset at what I had just overheard.  We made small talk about how weird/awkward that was and I even went as far as saying, "I debated whether I should call the cops or not".  I decided not to.. but it's kind of left me a bit unsettled.

Like I said the man didn't touch the child (that I saw), he just seemed very verbally abusive.  I'd hate to be the one that didn't call when I should have and helped that child out of an unfortunate situation.  I'm not a parent, and I know that sometimes you just pop.  But that seemed far more inappropriate than it should have been.  And it sickens me to know that the woman let the man pop off like that on such a young child.



What would you guys have done in the same situation?
How do you handle a situation like that when you are in public and someone "disciplines" their child in a way you don't think appropriate?
I'm sure I shot them some dirty looks but that is about it...

So I had a situation this evening that has left me wondering what everyone else would do... This evening I tackled the crazy amounts of la...