Colin,
I came very close to being a victim of black crime a few years ago when I made the foolish decision to walk the few blocks to catch the train at a station in the Chelsea section of Manhattan, well past midnight, all alone.
I normally would travel by cab at that time of the night but I’d burned through a lot of cash the previous day and I thought that I’d save a few dollars by taking the subway home. Mid block on one of the side streets along the way three black “youths” were loitering on a stoop and as I approached they popped up and blocked me from walking straight ahead.
I moved to the left and continued walking but one of them leaped sideways and blocked my way. I tried moving the other way and this same guy leaped (like a kangaroo) and was in front of me again. The other two were milling around off to my side somewhere but I was mostly focused on the leaping guy and by this time I was very frightened.
I knew that I was in trouble .. I was thinking robbery or rape or even murder. Panic was setting in and then cold shock when I felt someone had approached me from behind and grabbed me firmly on the left arm.
I turned to look and a wave of relief overcame me when I saw that it was a white man who had come up behind us unnoticed by me. He held my arm and guided me past the leaping thug and he said to me “Keep walking, don’t look back” which is exactly what I did.
The thugs were saying things but he ignored them and escorted me down the block to the avenue. I knew that we would be okay because their chattering kept fading away as we moved forward and I could tell that they weren’t following us.
My hero got me to a corner and flagged down a cab and put me in it. He tossed a bill to the driver and said “Take her home, safely” and that’s the last that I saw of him ..
it’s also the last time that I roamed the city streets alone after midnight. I learned my lesson. Without the sudden appearance of the hero I don’t think that things would have gone very well for me that night.
