What did I just see?

[RavenSky]

I just got home from running errands, and pulled into my parking garage. I live downtown, and my parking garage is public on the lower floors with the upper floors quasi-private for my highrise and one other.

Anyway, as I am driving up through the public section, I came around a corner to see a middle aged white male standing behind a vehicle I assume was his. The trunk was open, and the man was brandishing a golf club while facing away from his car towards some people approximately 4 or 5 spaces further up and on the opposite side.

And when I say "brandishing", I mean full on brandishing. He had the golf club over his head and was shaking it.

I immediately looked towards the people he was facing, expecting to see some sort of trouble. Instead, I saw approximately a dozen black young guys, maybe late teens to early 20's, greeting each other. Some were still getting out of vehicles that had parked side-by-side. None, as near as I could tell in those few seconds, had even noticed the white man.

So now I look back quizzically at the white man as I am driving (very slowly) past him. He looks hard at me, too, but lowers his golf club.

I continue up to my floor and park...

I will tell you the rest later, but I am curious... if you were in my place, at this point what would you think you were seeing? What, if anything, would you have done?

 

[ruby sparks]

If I wasn't in a hurry, I'd have tried not to let the man see that I was looking at him, I'd have parked somewhere I could watch surreptitiously, and I'd have intervened if he had attacked or gone to attack anyone, and called the police.

Or what you did.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

In all honesty, I'd probably keep an eye on him as I was leaving. What I actually ought to do, maybe, is ask him if he is okay. Depending on answer, perhaps call an ambulance, police, VA, or figure out how to help him. I mean, he sounds like he has mental illness but also context is everything so maybe something happened that can't be observed at this point.

 

[laughing dog]

I'd shoot him because clearly he was threatening someone.

 

[fast]

I would think he was annoyed by loud 'music' that already been cut down before your arrival, frustrated by unsightly rims, and angered by unsympathetic looks just prior to some 'innocent' comment that really set him off as the meet and greeters suddenly congregated in mass upon him. Pissed off and completely beside himself, especially after seeing those damn shoes of that one 'innocent passenger', he momentarily lashed out releasing pent up racial slurs predicated not on racist leanings but observation of cultural differences.

What's so ashamed about the whole thing is that he would have actually refrained from his outburst and not brandished the golf club in a fit of anger (despite the music) had the nonverbal cues present in the young black man's face not been interpreted so negatively.

I know we shouldn't blame the black momma of the kid (who thinks it's apparently SMART to not teach young black people how to interact during such confrontations), and I know the white man's expectations are out of touch with expectations of the new times, but I blame that white man. His frustrations, sparked by the 'innocent events as such' is a failure on his part to financially compensate for his preferred place in society. He is deficient, financially, so just as you don't have to deal with broke rednecks in a high rise, he chose to comingle with people who the resources afford them to belong.

So, in short, he has gotten used to living a certain way and for the most part avoids confrontations with the encroaching culturally distinct fellow neighbors, and in a fit brought on by rapid overexposure, he stopped thinking and became overwrought with anger. Had he had sex the night before, they would of just been a bunch of kids playing music a little too loud.

I guess at the heart of the matter is that there is a woman out there that isn't taking care of her man. But then again, he's probably been a bastard as of late. I mean, like really, when's the last has his wife actually cleaned the damn place--or didn't just throw something mundane together for supper?

See, this is what happens when people grow up. Had he not, he could have had a jam up music sound system of his own and jammed them all out. They would of all laughed at him, but those black boys would have been smiling right; hence, those nonverbal cues spoken of earlier wouldn't have manifested. It's not all about race, ya see ... or is it, hmmm?

It's about you not telling us the whole story, especially the intricate seemingly trivial parts that took place just prior to your arrival. I know, I know, it still wouldn't have justified his reaction. But hey, I'm just telling you what I think you saw. Like Jurassic park, I had to add a little frog DNA not apart of your story, but shoot, how else am I to create this dinosaur of a story without adding something in that the facts don't support ... but doesn't eliminate either, hehe.

 

[bilby]

There is as yet insufficient data for a meaningful response.

 

[Trausti]

Maybe you're so lost in your favored political narrative that you're seeing patterns that aren't there.

 

[RavenSky]

There is as yet insufficient data for a meaningful response.

Exactly, which is why I'm not sure what I saw... if anything.

I parked around the corner and walked back to the elevator where I would have a clear view. The man was still doing stuff in his trunk, but no longer brandishing the golf club. He did see me at the elevator watching him. He picked up the golf club again out of his trunk, put it in the backseat of his car, locked everything up and went to the far elevator away from me and from the young men.

The group were still getting themselves organized, never appearing to have noticed me or the man.



Was the whole thing like one of those freeze frames that look incriminating but isn't? Maybe golf guy was simply stretching after a long drive? Why one golf club rather than bag full? Why put it in his back seat rather than the other way around? These were the questions going through my head at the time

My gut tells me the man was, at minimum, trying to appear threatening to the group; but I don't know. Perhaps my accidental presence prevented something further from happening. Perhaps I've just been reading too many "BBQ Becki" type news reports. Bottom line - nothing happened, and I will never know what it was that I saw.

 

[repoman]

Maybe the guy watches too many WorldStarHipHip videos of blacks committing violence.

 

[hurtinbuckaroo]

And when I say "brandishing", I mean full on brandishing. He had the golf club over his head and was shaking it.

If there was a thunderstorm, he was probably just holding up a 1-iron to avoid being struck by lightning.