assault at logan circle nw

wed., 20 sept. 06

in our wanna-be middle class life
we were on our way to pretend like we can afford to shop at whole foods.
we were waiting for a light at logan circle
near where 13th st., P st., and rhode island and vermont avenues intersect
into one of the circles that DC visitors like to hate.

i’m driving.
i look to my left and see 3 dudes.
at first glance it seems like they are students play-fighting
like adolescents like to do.
then my brain registers the seriousness of the event.
one chocolate dude has his arms wrapped around the white dude’s head like a vise.
chocolate dude #2 is beating the crap out of white dude’s face.

somewhere in this i call to ishaq who is lounging in the passenger seat.
i forget about the light and the people behind me.
i’m paralized, just shocked, as i continue to see chocolate dude #2 pound this man’s face.
finally #2 stops and goes into the man’s pocket.
it looks like he took some money and a cell phone.
ishaq fumbles with the door, jumps out, and starts yelling at the chocolate dudes.
– these young boys look just like him,
in fact they remind me of him at their age. –
one runs off across P and rhode island.
the other acts really strange.

by this time
some brown folks behind me are yelling from their car
at the young hooligans
and a white (man) passerby
has also come on the scene.

i said that chocolate fool #1 was acting strange.
he just walks away s l o w l y
all puffed up with adrenaline.
the white passerby asks him repeatedly,
“are you assaulting him?”
i guess he was kinda trying to figure out what to do, too,
cause he let this chocolate fool just walk away.
WE let him walk away.
and turned our attention to
the victim
whose eye was bloated like a plum,
vines of blood crawling down his face.
he tried to stand
but had to just sit down on the sidewalk.

the owner (i guess) of the house on the corner
whose gate he was leaning on
came out with a cell and asked what she could do.
the passerby/good samaritan had gathered enough sense to 911.

ishaq got back into the car.
i don’t know if he said anything to the samaritan or the victim.
we drove around the circle
intending, i guess, to keep on our journey to whole foods.
we continued to look back at the scene
and saw some police cars drive by.
we were like: dag, that’s quick!
but that’s what they did:
the police drove by
while the samaritan waved his arms trying to flag them down!

we decided to drive back around the circle
in the direction of the running mugger
and, a couple blocks away, saw some police cars,
a stopped metro bus,
and throngs of policemen.
(i later counted about 13.)

we saw one of the thugs,
hands behind his back, caught, alHamdulillah.
i parked across the street at a convenience store parking lot
and watched the scene with the girls
while ishaq got out and went to talk to the police.

i got to give sanaa a lesson on what the police do
and gave her a new vocabulary word: jail.

i see ishaq talking to police
and writing on papers, making a statement, he said later.
he came back and told us:

first, the police didn’t even know what happened.
they just saw some black boys running,
looking guilty,
and stopped them.
i don’t quite know how i feel about that.
at first, it doesn’t seem right,
but i don’t know what kind of drama’s been going on in that area.
ishaq told them about the assault.
apparently, some boys tried to get on the bus
and the driver called / waved at / somehow stopped the police to get them.

ishaq said that he didn’t see the pummeler,
but police did get the one that held the victim.
the police said that the accomplice
had blood all down his arms.

ishaq said that when he went to where the police where “investigating”,
i.e. trying to find out what in the world was going on,
he said: “i don’t know about the rest of them,
but i know that one right there [pointing to the accomplice] did it.”

a latino family was sitting next to us
in their own car watching the scene, too.
i guess it was like the t.v. show “Cops”, only live.
they asked if we knew what happened.
i told them what i saw.
ishaq added his piece.
they said that just last week some boys stabbed someone on the corner
and that stuff like that happened often.
unfortunately, they lived in the area.
we all shook our heads
and told each other to be safe.

after all that, we drove back by the scene
on our way to whole foods
– we would not be deterred from getting our overpriced, visibly appealing food.
the victim was still sitting on the corner with the samaritan.

when we drove BACK from whole foods,
the victim was STILL sitting on the corner with the samaritan
and, thankfully, a cop who’d roped off the scene with yellow tape.

i’ve lived in DC a little more than 7 years.
i’ve lived in lower NE near H St.,
in SE near potomac and pennsylvania avenues,
and now in upper NE near bladensburg and south dakota avenues.
urban areas, yes, but more family-oriented, townhouse/single-family areas
as opposed to hip, condos-poppin-up, i-live-next-to-whole-foods areas.
in all this time nothing really eventful has happened, alHamdulillah.
my car has been broken into
– cause a husband-who-shall-not-be-named left the sunroof open –
and a bike was stolen from my yard.
however, i’ve never experienced or seen
a personal, physical assault
much less in broad daylight
and during rush hour.
those fools had some gall!

i pray for the victim’s physical and spiritual healing
and for those dumb chocolate boys to be rightly guided.
ameen.