Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Security Shaken

Last night was a really nice night, weather wise, when we returned home from Kajukenbo. It had cooled down a bit and there was a slight breeze. I decided since I had only walked a mile in the morning I would go for another walk in the evening. I had planned to walk one of my usual 2 mile loops through the neighborhood and Jacob wanted to come along. Great some one on one with Jacob since I had some on my walk last night with Emma. We started out, heading down the street. When we were about a half mile from home we heard some fun Fiesta type music coming from a neighbors yard. I said to Jake, "they must be having a party down there". As we got closer I could hear a car reving, and see the windshield wipers going in the car on the side of the house, and at quick glance what looked like a child climbing over the front seat into the back. I looked around for a parent and saw 3 small kids in the door way. Then looked back to the car, realizing there were no children in the car that I could see, it was actually two adults fighting. The woman was in the drivers seat but leaned over into the passenger seat and the man was standing outside the drivers door, leaning over her, trying to pull her out by her hair, violently shaking her. They were really going at it. Another neighbor who was walking his dog stopped too both of us obviously unnerved, wanting to help but knowing in this day and age you jump into something like that you could lose your life trying to help. I told Jacob to keep walking. I knew I couldn't really help her physically so I pulled out my cellphone and started calling 911. The man caught sight of me calling and turned his attention to me. He came out of his yard walking toward me screaming and pointing his finger at me yelling "Are you calling 911?" "You don't know whats going on, she is trying to take my baby!" "You need to mind your own business." I told the man that he needed to let the police come help him get his baby back. "You just don't know! That's why I hate white people!" he yelled. Then he headed back into his yard to again attack the woman in the car who had not taken the oppurtunity to leave.
Jacob had not gone far. He was very scared and shook up. We kept walking while being on hold with 911. Knowing it wasn't safe to stand there but also knowing I still needed to get the police involved in this. The other neighbor walked down the street too. I was kept on hold trying to get through to 911 for about 2 minutes. I then was able to report it and we did later see 2 police cars headed that way. Soon after we left we looked back to see the woman had pulled her car out of the yard and parked across the street but I don't know what happened from there.

Jacob was pretty shaken and I was too. The other neighbor who was walking with their dog stopped to talk with us and said "I would have been okay". I took that to mean he would have protected me if necessary and he did suggested I stay away from that house for a while. We talked for a few minutes about how rough the neighborhood had become and then said good night.

After that Jacob and I could not walk home the same way. I couldn't reach anyone to pick us up and take us home so we started walking toward Fred Meyer knowing Jason was headed there after work to pick up dog food. Jason eventually did pass us and we were able to get his attention to pick us up.

Although it was scary and sad, we were safe and protected. The Lord was definitely watching out for us. Jacob and I had a good conversation about racism too after that. He has many close friends that are different nationalities. He said he hates "the war between the black and white people". He didn't realize the man was Latino and that is okay. We don't have racism in our house and I am proud of that.
I have prayed for that family. What a terrible night for all of them especially the children.
I have to say Jason and I talked about moving last night but I don't think we will do that but I will be walking with my big dog and pepper spray today.

1 comment:

  1. Wow Sarah. Glad that you were kept safe. Portland has sure changed since I have been there. You've only been blogging for a few days and already you've had two incidents...scary stuff,but don't let it discourage you!

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