Ouch....

[ffutures]

So I finished Omphalos and went shopping. Turned out to be raining so instead of heading for Portobello Road (where I generally get very cheap fruit etc.) I decided to head for Queensway, the local high street, and check the books etc. in a couple of charity shops.

BIG mistake. While I was looking there was a commotion at the door and I looked up to see the woman who runs the shop being pushed by an escaping shoplifter. Like an idiot I didn't let him run off... oh no, I had to be the hero so I grabbed at his arm. He promptly kicked me in the leg and pulled away. I staggered back and promptly fell over an old lady who was standing behind me, flattening her. By the time we'd sorted that out the thief was long gone, of course.

Result: A very shaken old lady whom I hope is okay. A bruised leg and two very badly bruised fingers, one of which may possibly be broken; I don't think it is, but I could be wrong. A half hour or so waiting for the police, and not much to show for it. If I hadn't tried to help he would have probably just run away.

Comments

[elementalv.livejournal.com]

The impulse to help overrides common sense on a regular basis. I'm just glad you're getting off with a bruised leg and fingers. As for the potentially broken one, can you move it? If you can, you may have jammed it or it got slightly dislocated. Painful no matter how you look at it.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure I've just bruised it very badly, it's moving ok.

[lakrids404.livejournal.com]

for what it is worth, coming from a stranger, I thought, that you did the right thing.

[chinaraven.livejournal.com]

Ow,Ow,Ow,Ow,Ow,Ow,Ow,Ow,Ow,Ow! Sorry to hear about your injuries.


But it's good to hear you tried to help out - that is something rarely seen in this ol world these days.

[nwhepcat.livejournal.com]

I agree -- I think you did the right thing. (The lady you flattened can tell her friends she was flattened by a guy trying to be heroic rather than "The shopkeeper at the market was roughed up by a criminal and nobody did a thing!") He's the one responsible for the old lady being flattened, not you.

I get to be an expert, since I was Big Mouth Crime Alert Gal in NYC for a few years (and a crime victim a few times).

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I'm not complaining so much about being hurt as about being so bloody incompetent that someone else got hurt. In the abstract I'm all in favour of trying to stop crime, but in fact what happened is that an innocent third party (the old lady) got hurt because I screwed up.

[nwhepcat.livejournal.com]

I got that you're more upset about the old lady being hurt than yourself. I hope she wasn't banged around too badly. But I still think your impulse was a good one -- and I learned one important thing about physical fights in a pretty wicked self-defense class I took years ago (and it was news to me, because as a woman I'd never been in a serious physical fight) -- they are messy and even the winner ends up kinda beaten up. Don't be so hard on yourself. You did not stand aside and do nothing. (Which trust me, if you had, you'd probably be upset with yourself for that.)

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

A footnote to this is that the old lady turned out to be OK. Great relief.