Criminals and Victims

Sometimes what we see and hear from the media is not always black and white. We are only shown what the media wants us to see, and sometimes it is blown out of proportion just to create a buzz. I haven’t seen anything these last few days on the news about the taxi driver who drove over this guy a couple of weeks ago. Apparently, it’s been all over the world on Utube. I haven’t seen it on Utube, only on TV. Many people apparently found it upsetting and are calling for the taxi driver’s head. They want him punished for doing such a terrible thing. This is again one of those incidents that make victims out of hoodlums and criminals out of victims. The man only acted in self-defense. Don’t people see what is happening when they watch the clip? I see guys kicking the taxi; one guy is stomping his feet on the roof of the taxi. What would have happened had they managed to pull him out of his vehicle? Probably beat him up, possibly injured him badly, perhaps even killed him. But no, the only thing people seem to see is the taxi driving over one of those hoodlums.

When an animal is cornered, it will lash out and try to escape by all means necessary, and that’s what the driver did. The only thing in his mind was to get away from his attackers. He did what he had to do…drive. If one of his attackers fell under the wheel it was not his fault. I hope the driver gets a fair trial.

A few weeks ago we had our driveway lights smashed by some punks. Had I caught them in the act and beat them up, I probably would have been charged with assault.

This reminds me of what happened to an acquaintance of mine many years ago. He is not a big man, quite small, actually, but he is trained in martial arts. One evening while walking around in his yard looking at the stars, he noticed a couple of guys trying to break into his neighbor’s house. His neighbor was on holidays. So he walked over and asked the two guys what they were up to. One of them, I big guy, attacked my acquaintance with a piece of lumber. He ended up with a broken arm and other injuries. He had the audacity to sue my acquaintance for assault. Fortunately, the judge threw out the case. One look at the big guy with his arm in a sling and another look at my acquaintance, who is not very big, caused the judge to shake his head and say, “Let me get this straight: This guy beat up this guy? Case dismissed!”

It worked out well this time. Justice was done, but it could have gone otherwise. It seems the perpetrators and criminals are more protected by our laws than the victims.

Right now I’m watching something that has happened to a young man I know quite well. He drove his bike to work in the morning and, trying to avoid a pothole full of water, came over a bit too far toward the next lane on the road. The driver of the car near him yelled at him and, after a short exchange of words, the driver punched this young man in the face and sped off. The injured young man called the police. He reported the incident and asked them to locate the driver (he had the license number of the car) and wanted the driver charged.  Hours later the police arrested this young man, charged him with assault (according to the driver the young man spat at him—untrue--), fingerprinted him and took his picture. He’ll have to go to court. They told him if he loses the case he’ll have a criminal record which would affect his future, like travel restrictions and whatever.All this for, allegedly, spitting another man in the face. We are wondering now if the driver was a cop, a lawyer, or some other ‘important’ person. Sounds like a made-up story by a writer with a fertile imagination. It isn’t. This is real life.