Living on Faithless Street

Beef & Bean Rice Bowl 

Last night as I was riding my bike home from work near downtown Brooklyn I see 4 African American kids running from 2 Hispanic and 2 Middle Eastern men up the street.  I was stopped at the light with about 5 other bikers, all of them food delivery guys.  At first it looked as though the kids were playing and laughing, then I saw the faces of the men who were chasing them and they looked very angry. The light changed and all of us waiting were getting the picture of what was going on very quickly.  As we came upon the scene in the middle of the block, one of the kids stopped suddenly, turned and pushed the Latino that was right up on him and the man fell and hit the sidewalk very hard.  The kids laughed and when they saw he might be hurt one ran back to strike him.   The remaining kids began challenged the other men to fight.  A quick assessment showed 2 of the boys were very young, like possibly 10 or 11 and the others in their teens, very tall, but still looked under 18.  So when we all caught up, we stopped, each of us together now a wall of bikes facing the boys and this changed the outcome.  That became a real beautiful dark Brooklyn moment.  The boys didn't look at us but they were very aware that the 4 now became many.  One of the riders held his phone up like a weapon and called for the boys to stop, calm down.  He advised the man that fell who looked injured to call the cops immediately.  I yelled for the others not to hit the boys as they were under age and it would only be bad for the adults and another one of the drivers turned to agree with me.  He shouted, yes, it will only be bad for you.   During this exchange, the boy that was about to strike the man on the ground stopped and they all ran away again.  But even though the boys were halfway down the block after they saw that three of the bikers left, they decided to come back and try to take on the man that fell who was now back on his feet and yelling.  I positioned myself ready to escape quickly but held up my phone as if I was filming the boys as they approached and then they turned and ran away.  I watched them as they became smaller, still jumping and yelling down the street before putting down my phone.  I was too nervous to actually get it working in time, so it was a bluff.  Now those of us remaining seemed to separate as if before we had magically operated from one brain.  As the adrenaline wore off, we all came aware of our bodies again.   No one asked what happened but the men yelled to us 'they stole food from our shop, we caught them'.  And we nodded.  At the end, I was able to make eye contact with the injured Latino who was still breathing heavy and he looked at me in the eyes and said 'I caught him with the loaf of bread'.  I nodded again but when I heard it was bread I was a little upset that it was something so trivial.  But I also understand that at night in these businesses  if you allow something as small as theft to go on you could become a target and I see how it must have played out.  It was most likely a Middle Eastern run bodega with Mexican workers and it possibly got disruptive quickly so that they ran out of the shop after the boys after an altercation of some kind. When the man was struck, it became personal as the kids were going to attack him when he was down.  I've been in that position.

I shook my head and smiled at him, giving him my most sympathetic eyes hoping to lighten the moment and simply said 'they're assholes' before riding off.  I regretted not asking if he was okay but I was suddenly overcome with emotion and ended up crying through the next residential blocks.  I felt horrible at the potential for how childhood pranks can end up in very serious violence so quickly in the city.  I thought about where these men came from, their countries, possibly escaping violence and very familiar with territorial disputes. The hours they work, the seriousness and importance of holding on to everything they've worked for.  I thought about the kids, roaming the streets at night looking for trouble. Did they need the bread, were they hungry or more likely just entertaining their restless hearts.  Even though their behavior was illegal and abhorrent, they were still children.  What leniency do you grant them?  Suddenly in my mind I saw the situation as two entirely separate realities.  One where it was simply silly kids playing pranks and like in a comedy, the shopkeepers all running down the street in their aprons, waiving sticks, Benny Hill music playing behind.  But then another where everything seemed so void of anything funny. I saw real humility, the gravity of the situation, and was reminded of how cruel and dangerous the city can become so quickly.  

I also realized that this is my burden and gift in life.  I experience opposing  reactions to almost every situation.  Sometimes one eventually weights heavier and becomes truth.  Other times, I just land somewhere in the middle, confused.