Today another bully has been, apparently, brought to justice. This morning an LAPD SWAT team surrounded an apartment building and brought out one of the two punks who nearly beat the father of my daughter’s classmate to death for being a baseball fan. My satisfaction at the capture of this scumbag rivals and reflects the feeling I had when another evil prick met his comeuppance in recent weeks.
Every day for more than two months my daughters have gone into and out of elementary school past cars with “Support Bryan Stow” signs stuck and painted onto them. The father of the baby in the picture above, today a nine-year-old girl in my younger daughter’s third-grade class, Bryan Stow is also a paramedic who among other things volunteers his time with the San Francisco Giants’ farm team. Bryan is quite a guy all around, the kind of person that makes you realize you could do a bit better yourself. The kind of father you like to know is a parental influence on the children your kids spend time with.
We hope Bryan gets to see his daughter again. To hold her in his arms like he did the day she was born. Bryan has not seen his daughter since March 31, though she has seen him. Bryan is in a coma due to a vicious beating he received from two pathetic cowards who jumped him from behind as he left a Giants/Dodgers game. Bryan was wearing a Giants jersey, and the two Dodgers fans who beat him nearly to death decided to celebrate their team’s victory by taking him away from his children.
Last Saturday the town held a fair to raise money for the family. Christine had a painting in the art show at the fair, the local police brought out an old 1961 Scotts Valley cop car. The fire department and local shops showed up, donating time and products and care.
My call into KGO radio didn’t make it onto the air, so I will put my comment on the question of witnesses and fear of reprisal here:
It is everyone’s responsibility – to themselves – to take action against Wrong. Yes, there can be consequences to your actions that can include losing your own life when you confront evil – or worse, the lives of those you love. But you are living with that risk now, whether you face it or not. You and your mother and your daughter and everything you hold dear is at risk by the presence of evil in your midst. You cannot appease it, you cannot hide from it, you cannot protect them from it other than by confronting it where you see it.
Only hopelessness and cynicism give strength to bullies, thugs, terrorists, dictators. They are not threatening to harm you with knives and guns, they are actually harming you with fear. They are harming your children, your parents, your partner – and they are doing it now.
Nothing was won by keeping quiet when evil presented itself. Your children in East Hollywood are not safer because you did not call the police and tell them you know who beat Bryan Stow. Your children are at greater risk because you did not, and because you will not next time either. My children are not safe from the effects of evil here in “Cops Valley” (we have no crime) because we cannot see East LA or Oakland from our porch. Evil unaddressed will reach you wherever you are. If you want to protect yourself and your family, then act against evil when you see it.
This ‘man’ is going to jail, where he will not be received as a hero. His friend is going, too, because bullies like this fop are sniveling cowards at the end of the day. Unlike those who would not turn him in, he will be squawking to save his skin.
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