“Samantha Radjenovic, 30, said she was in her car, waiting for classes to end, when a motorist tried to parallel park his SUV into a tiny parking space behind her, outside the Chicago Public School in the 4800 block of W. Dickens Ave.” Having read the headline above the post, you know where this is going. Even so, I bet you still shake your head when you read of innocent Americans brutalized by bad guys. At least, I hope so. “First the driver backed the SUV into the spot — striking a van in the process, Radjenovic said on Sunday when reached by phone. Then the driver pulled forward, ramming her car, she said. When Radjenovic got out to snap a cellphone photo of the vehicle’s license plate, and informed the driver, a man, that she would be filing an insurance claim, he went ballistic, she said . . .
“I felt my bones cracking. There were about 50 people in their cars and nobody came to stop it,” Radjenovic told the Sun-Times. “Nobody did anything.”
The attacker, later identified as Castro, punched Radjenovic 13 times in the face, breaking an eye socket, her nose and loosening her teeth, Cook County prosecutors said in court.
Would you intervene? Some gun gurus say no – not unless you’re absolutely sure who’s attacking whom for what reason. In other words, you need to know the whole story. If you don’t, you don’t. And you could mistake a good guy for a bad guy. And even if you do know the players without a scorecard, intervening puts you and your family at risk. Is it worth it?
Then again, human nature -the good part – suggests that most of our readers would do something to stop the violence. And I certainly hope that you would rush to provide aid to the victim after the attack. Check this:
Radjenovic said she then crumpled to the pavement. Her attacker, she said, then grabbed a small child from his vehicle as she stumbled to the front of the school. Court records indicate he fled the scene on foot.
When she reached the front door of the school the day of the alleged attack, staff inside the school were not willing to help, Radjenovic said.
“A woman came out and said, ‘This didn’t happen at school, we’re not going to help,’” Radjenovic said. A parent with a cellphone called 911 instead, Radjenovic said.
While CPS officials sent a nurse out to wipe her face with gauze, they barred her from entering while detaining her son inside. Eventually an ambulance took her to Our Lady of the Resurrection Medical Center, according to a Chicago Police report. Her son was released to the custody of his grandparents, she said.
CPS spokesman Joel Hood declined to comment on the alleged attack.
“I’m just disappointed in the school system,” Radjenovic said. “Nobody wanted to get in involved. The whole side of the school was facing the street. Everyone was able to see what was going on.”
I could have filed this story under This Is What Happens to a Disarmed Populace. Because the bystanders’ reaction – or lack thereof – is a symptom of a populace inured to violence and, at the same time, terrified by it.
In any case, it should have been a defensive gun use. Jason Castro [above] should have faced the business end of, say, a Smith & Wesson snub-nosed revolver, just as Chicago must face the fact that it takes an armed citizenry to create a civilized society. [h/t NQ]