15 August 2006

Unnecessary Force?

One day at work I witnessed a "COPS" moment. I was standing in the rotunda greeting, a job which consists of pasting a fake smile on my face for every customer who comes in and saying, "Good afternoon," or, "Welcome to our Crap Store," or telling them of a promotion currently happening in the store. I'm not the best suited for this job. My voice doesn't travel very well, I'm not very enthusiastic, and when customers ignore me intentionally I say rude things like, "I take it back, you're not welcome, get out of my store," or, "I hope you die in the middle of the street." In fact the managers have a list of greeters upstairs divided with he headings "good," "in a pinch," and "never." I'm in a pinch.

But on the plus side I get paid to stand there and watch women walk by for an hour. This is usually the best part but on this day attractive women came in second. I heard a loud bumping noise from the revolving door. Inside there was a homeless man and a cop, the latter's hand around the former's throat. They were stuck because their feet kept the door from rotating. The homeless man had a cigarette in his hand and looked fairly unconcerned even as he was being grabbed and mashed up against the interior glass wall by the officer. He took a drag, looked around for an ashtray apparently, and not finding one dropped it on the ground.

I couldn't hear what the cop was saying but he got the man to cooperate in making it from the door to inside the store. Once inside they were just standing, the homeless guy just hanging out like it was any other corner, the cop taking heaving breaths. At a move from the guy the cop grabbed him and threw him into one of the large windows in our storefront. IN a movie they would have smashed through onto the sidewalk, but in reality all the stores on Michigan Ave. have bullet-proof glass, so a homeless body means nothing.

The cop continued attempting to subdue the guy, but he kept fighting back. This incited the cop to punch the guy two or three times in the face and head. Shortly after another officer came in to help. They rolled him over on the bench and hand-cuffed him, pinning him down with knees on the spine and elbows on the back of the neck. After he was cuffed but still fought they dragged him down onto the ground face-down for more leverage.

A few moments later the man was standing up and escorted out of the store. I turned to my manager who was standing next to me, mouth agape and eyes wide, and half whispered half mouthed to him, "That was fucking AWESOME!" This gained me evil looks from a couple of customers but forget them, I haven't seen a fight that cool since Jr. High when a behemoth black girl beat the living crap out of a skinny black girl, citing "food" as the cause of the fight.

Not to be topped, my manager pointed out at the sidewalk where a large group of black people with kids were standing, I suppose having watched the whole thing. He said, "Do you think that's their dad?" I just started laughing like a madman while my manager asked, "Is that bad?" "Yes it is, but its also totally funny."

Good to know I'll have fun company in hell.

::GringO::

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