The three of us had an amazing early summer day riding around all the harbors. It was ridiculous how bumping it was. A carnival at canalside, people everywhere in the marina, even the outer harbor was busy.
Near Wilkenson point, they have a week long exhibit of lit up inflatable castles. We didn't go in it because of the line, but I've heard it's cool on the inside.
They now added a snack and beer stand along with rentable kayaks and games around the point. Acrobatic yoga was happening too. On one hand I'm glad to see it used, on the other hand, does every public space now need to be constantly commercialized? I prefer the outer habor more natural and all the commercial stuff near the canal.
On the way back, we got clams for
(e:paul) at the hatch and rode home. Riding up north Pearl street by the carnival, I passed what I thought were two kids wrestling around on the sidewalk. When I saw
(e:paul) and
(e:terry) stop, I rode back and saw that it was a woman (I don't want to even call her a mother) uppercutting her young (10-12ish?) year old kid, screaming at him and everyone trying to intervene.
There was an older guy that stepped in between them and confronted her and she just lost her shit - something like "You can't fucking tell me what to do with my kid fucking asshole", all the while
still trying to swing at her kid. WTF. I got a picture and short video if needed (no way am I going to post that).
(e:paul) tried to call 911, but no dice, they wouldn't do anything without a specific location. 911 is next to useless. So I rode back down to Marine Drive and got a police officer with some other lady.
The police came over and pulled away the woman away and she's still yelling and swinging, telling the kid it's to look at what he did, how he's still gonna get it. The boy is screaming and crying, the crowd is gawking, I can't imagine anything worse for these kids.
The part I feel the most terrible about is what happens to after this? Does woman gets off with this (and probably beats the kid twice as hard in private considering what she does in public) or does she goes to jail, and probably throw her family's life into chaos?
Public violence seriously stresses me out and depresses me. Lady, I don't know your story, but from what I saw today you're a human bag of shit.
