One of the characteristics of my job is that every shift is different. No two nights are ever the same. Two of the themes that I see recurring regularly involve alcohol consumption and absolutely crazy decisions. The two go hand in hand. There is a Web site that chronicles stories of those that make less than stellar decisions, http://www.darwinawards.com/. I run into potential candidates for these awards frequently. Tonight was no exception. C is on his fourth day of evaluation. He is doing very well. He has benefitted from having an exceptional evening shift and night shift trainer. He also has prior military experience and maturity on his side. C is going to be a good officer. Tonight we were dispatched to a robbery with weapon that had just occurred. We made it to the location and another unit was already there interviewing the victim, M. This is M's version of the incident. M lives in Hempstead. He goes to college downtown. He had a buddy that needed a ride to the downtown Greyhound bus station. If you are not familiar with the downtown Greyhound bus station, I shall shine some light on the location. I will preface this by saying that I am in no way demeaning those that ride the bus in general nor Greyhound in particular and I have no experience with the station during the day. But at night, the station is not the kind of place where you want to loiter. All types of individuals get dropped off at the bus station. When prisoners get released from prison, if they do not have someone pick them up, they are put on a bus. That bus brings them to the downtown station where they wait until the morning to catch a connecting bus or they try to find their half-way house or they just hang out. Not everyone at the station is a criminal, but it is an exceptionally high percentage. M was kind enough to give him a ride to the station. They arrived a little late and his buddy missed his bus. While they were deciding what to do, someone backed into M's vehicle, breaking a headlight. The driver offered M $150 to pay for the headlight. M accepted and the driver handed over $150 in cash to M in the parking lot of the station in view of everyone that was nearby. A short time later, a stranger walked up to M and asked him for a ride into the 4th Ward. The 4th Ward is about a 20 minute walk west from the Greyhound station. The 4th Ward is a know drug trafficking area. M explained that when he did not have a car, someone had offered him a ride to school. He thought of this time and decided to give the stranger a ride to the 4th Ward. They arrived in the Ward and pulled up to a house. The stranger got out and asked M to wait for a minute. M said sure. What? You give a stranger a ride and then he asks you to wait and you do? The stranger returned with another male and asked for a ride to another location in the Ward. Finally, alarm bells started going off in M's head. But, not loudly enough. M developed some false bravado and asked, "You guys are not going to jack me, are you?" M let them both in the car and started driving. The passenger asked M if he could have a few dollars. M said no. The other male then told M to give him all of his money. M said no again but kept driving. The male then reached into M's pocket and began extracting the $150 from M's pocket. M said that he had an additional $420 in his pocket. M started to struggle with the male while driving and ended up crashing his vehicle into a curb. M then got out of the vehicle in fear for his life and ran. He ran out of his coat and out of one shoe. Another officer found the coat and shoe nearby. M was lucky. He was also lying to us. I just do not believe that he was giving a stranger a ride into a known drug trafficking area and was an innocent victim. He had $420 in his pocket before getting the additional $150 at the bus station. I think that he drove into the Ward trying to score some dope and got jacked. He was lucky that his vehicle did not get taken and that he was not left bleeding on the side of the road. If M continues to make these kinds of decisions, he may yet make it onto the Web site.
No comments:
Post a Comment