Friar’s Blog

Below is the response from a Boston Police Officer:

Hello,

Every person is different, therefore responses are different. We don’t
recommend that a citizen confront suspects of crime. I would not want to
see someone trying to do the right thing put themselves in harms way.

In the situation you witnessed you could have phoned the police and
followed behind the suspect – at a safe distance without your presence
being known – until an officer arrived.

You could have spoken with the female victim to see if she was ok or
needed any help. Sometimes the kind, helpful words of an unknown person
can help overcome the situation a person had just been a victim of.
Depending on the person, that act of kindness may be more of a lasting
memory for the victim than the actual event.

I suggest you have various police department numbers programmed into
your phone. As you probably know, if you call 911 from a cellular phone
your call will be routed to the State Police. A time delay will then
occur until you can relay what city or town you are in so they can
forward the information to the appropriate Police department. Noting you
reside in Somerville, I suggest you have their number programmed as well
as any City you work or go to school in.

I wish I could tell you exactly what to do in a stressful situation but
that answer is up to you. The best thing to do is be aware of your
environment and the people around you.

Thank you for taking the time to be a helpful citizen.

Here’s the note I sent to the Boston Police Department…

While walking to the Downtown Crossing T Station after work, I witnessed a man inappropriately grab (i.e. grope) a woman at the corner of Federal Franklin and Washington Streets. She immediately yelled at him as he continued walking away.

I looked around for a police officer, but there was none around. I realize police can’t be ubiquitous, and the man may not have done it if there was an officer around. But I felt I should ask what I should do in that situation. I considered confronting him, taking a picture with my cellphone, and other options.

Any advice or direction on how such a situation could be handled in the future, would help me be a more helpful citizen.

Thanks for your time and efforts.

Sincerely

~~~~

At the time of the incident, my brain worked through all of the potential options and none of them were a good or productive idea.  I kept my eye on him for a while (at least long enough to see if there was a cop that came around a corner or something).

Anyway, I felt useless.  I have no inclination of being a hero or putting myself in risk (ok, Mom, Erica, et al), but I knew the guy would be doing it again just because of the look on his face.  But confronting him wouldn’t have brought about anything… there’s no such thing as a citizens arrest, right?

P.S. Compared to this incident it wasn’t a big deal, but I sat on the train next to a man dipping and spitting into an open top cup.  I’m not used to confined space, chewing tobacco, and sharing space with a cup of spit…

I was excited to see John Legend sing the National Anthem for Game 2 of the World Series.  When I went to see it again online, I found this:

Best ever though . . . Whitney Houston in the ‘91 Superbowl

Almost immediately upon returning from our honeymoon, Erica and I drove to New Hampshire to pick up Russ.  We named him after Tim Russert, and in a fun way he seems to have as much fun as Tim seemed to.

I thought for fun, I’d share just a pile of pictures of Russ.  He’s pretty funny lookin’ at times, and at others just painfully adorable.  The following are in no particular order or priority.  Just some of my favorites (we take a lot of pictures of this little nugget).

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After many months, I’m eager to return to using this space. I have for a while wanted to give some accounts of our wedding, our honeymoon, our puppy, my (not so) new job, Erica’s competion of her degree, and subsequently successful job search. But I have organized my thoughts/media enough to do that well.

Today’s a new day, and I’m going to get back to it. Expect the political rants, religious ideas, and sports posts as well. Themeless brain-droppings of an itinerant mind….