(no subject)

[vicarz]

So last night I got into a minor altercation. First, a few months ago a friend went hiking with us, and parked their car outside my house in broad daylight on a Sunday. During that day, despite the alarm, someone broke into her car and stole the stereo. She reported the event from her home, and the police misunderstood and accounted the event to her neighborhood.

Last night I was going to a party (of my boxing class loyalists), when I realized I had left the stereo faceplate inside. I left the car door open and dashed in, knowing I'd be right back out. As I returned to the car, a hisp male was cruising slowing on his bike in front of it. I turned off the light, booted up, and watched to see what he did. He leaned his bike on a silver volvo and stood there. He didn't look terribly thuggy, and I was thinking perhaps it is his car? But he just stayed over there, about 2 cars over from mine. I pulled out, but before leaving the parking lot decided I just had to make sure he wasn't going to damage cars in my neighborhood. A cab pulled up so I had to go to the far end of the parking lot, but still the guy stood there - now putting on his earpiece and hopping on his phone. He was a hisp male, about 5'7" to 5'9" 170-190 lbs at the very most, brown mini-trench leather coat, pants, and medium length black hair parted to the side. Still, his behavior was completely wrong. I spoke briefly with a neighbor who was walking her dogs, and decided I was tired of me and this creep looking at each other. I took off my seatbelt, lowered the windows, and drove back up to confront him. As I approached, before I said word one, he tore off in a series of (english) obscenities. "Fuck you motherfucker, what you looking at bitch ass mother fucker, fuck you!" and the like. I said "I don't know you, you live around here?" He said he lived at 1223 or 1323 or something like that, Quinn Street (liberally interspersed with fuckyous). I said I hadn't seen him, and that wasn't his car he was leaning his bike on. He started to approach my car threateningly, and I started grinning like a baboon. My eager face must have been visible because he backed up and went back to cussing. I let him curse, drove out of the parking lot, and he left the parking lot but stayed in the area. I honestly though about pummeling the punk, but thought if he's cruising for trouble he might have a gun or knife (now that I think about it the more likely issue would be a screwdriver).

So in a rare burst of maturity, I drove down the street and phoned the cops, and asked if they couldn't take the time to swing by and make sure the fellow wasn't up to anything bad. I'm hoping that having someone confront him, and then (if) the cops swing by the area, that this will keep him from coming back or thinking the area is an easy hit.

There is no way this guy was doing anything good. He (admittedly) doesn't live here. He was cruising slowly through the parking lot. He parked his bike on a car and was standing between cars outside his neighborhood. If his story about Quinn street was true, there is no reason whatsoever to go from that area through here. When he noticed he was being watched, he immediately exploded in threatening manner. To me, he was looking to break into cars. I'm open to other interpretations.

Not a terribly exciting story, but it was interesting to me. 1) I didn't want to judge this guy, which was just overcompensating white guilt. If a white guy acted like that I would have assumed he was a thief right away, but since he was brown I had that fear of judging. 2) I wasn't scared at all. I was downright eager to test this guy out. Sometimes I get scared of confrontations even when I'm sure I can win, easily, but for some reason the excitement incapacitates me. I get shakey and can hardly speak. This time, I was a little nervous but dead on ready and able to go. The backing down just felt rational, but overall I was so hoping for an excuse to go at it. I also didn't want to be too late for the party.