Street Crime

Yesterday I felt a bit like Homer Simpson: "Look kids, street crime". Except that I had no kids to say this to, and didn't actually say it out loud. Apart from those glaring differences, I was just like Homer, dammit.

I was going across to Target on the corner of Rundle Street to spend a gift voucher I'd received for Christmas. Standing at the pedestrian crossing, waiting for the lights to change, I hear yelling behind me so I turn around to see this guy of about 18 or 19 years old running, tripping and falling on the ground. Behind him comes running this 50+ year old guy, so the kid gets up and bolts it across to Rundle Street. The older guy, running out of breath, yells out for someone to stop the kid. No one really knew what to do. The kid had slowed down too, having time to turn around and call the man chasing him a c**t. The crowd, including me, watched on bewildered, as if things were happening in slow motion.

Eventually I heard someone else call out to the older man, "What did he do?", to which the man replied, "He's wrecked our shop! Where's the police when you need them?" That seemed to get the kid running again, only this time he was chased down Rundle Street by about 3 onlookers.

I don't know whether they caught him or not, but it's hard to know what to do in a situation like that. What could I have done, tackled this guy to the ground and held him down until the police arrived while dodging kicks and punches? I know the right thing to do is to try and help out, but at the same time, you also don't want to be involved. When I returned to work and told the few people in the office here what had happened, there were varying stories, some where people stayed well out of things they'd witnessed and others where they'd gotten involved (one guy had tales from both sides). I guess you just assess the situation at the time. I know when I was in Berri and heard my neighbour beating on his wife I got involved indirectly, by calling the police, because that felt safe. Anyone else have a similar tale to tell?