Songbird76
Well-Known Member
I've called police a few times when something was happening, but Dutch people seem to be averse to calling the police. When my kids were really young, I had volunteered to help decorate the school for fall. The school was only a block from our house...it's a 2 or 3 minute walk, so I didn't take my phone. This was pre-smartphone, so the only thing you used your phone for was to call people, or maybe take a picture. I didn't figure I'd need to call anyone. So I went and decorated with the other moms and then when I left, I heard screaming from the playground area. I looked over and there were 3 boys kicking someone on the ground and punching him, and he was screaming. He sounded pretty young. I didn't want to draw attention to myself, so I didn't want to walk under the street lights and I was closer to the school than to my house, so I walked back to the school and everyone was already in the parking lot getting into their cars, so I ran up to one of the moms and asked to borrow her cell phone to call the police. She didn't want to call the police, but she would turn her headlights on and aim them at the boys so they would know they were being watched. To me, that was stupid....it draws attention to us....what if they come after us because we have just watched them beating this kid? But I couldn't just steal her phone. The other moms saw her shining her lights and they asked what was going on, I explained, and not one of them would use their phones to call the police. Fortunately, the preschool in the building next to the elementary school was having a meeting with the teachers, and they came out to see what was going on, and the one immediately asked if the police had been called, and she called as soon as they said no. But out of....7? people, only ONE was willing to call the police.
And then a few weeks ago at the job I just quit, a homeless man came in, intoxicated, and was taking stuff from the shelves and tossing it on the floor, or out the door, tossing his keys, etc....he didn't break anything, he just kept taking things and putting them on the floor, and he grabbed a blanket and threw it out the door, then threw his keys outside. I picked up his keys at least four times and handed them back to him. We aren't allowed to have our phones on us on the work floor. Only the person in charge is allowed to have a phone. So I asked the other gal if we should maybe call the police. She wouldn't do it. I asked the boss what the protocol for that situation is, that I had wanted to call police, but that I wasn't allowed to have my phone (which honestly feels unsafe.) and she told me in that situation, we absolutely could have called the police. Just that morning, they had said on the news that the police were tired of people calling the police for stuff like that. ("confused person" incidents) but what else are we supposed to do? But in my experience, most people just don't want to get involved in stuff, so they won't call. My husband and I called police when we left the movie theater once and there was a drunk guy getting aggressive and a few people trying to diffuse the situation, and the guy punched one of them. There were people all over the place there, watching, and no one else called police. I just don't understand that mentality of "Oh, someone is throwing punches, let's just see how this plays out!"
I've also had men try to proposition me on the street, follow me home, etc, and once in a bar when I visited my husband before we were married, I went to the bathroom and two guys sitting at the bar blocked my way. I had to go get my husband to come with me so I could get to the bathroom. I've also had guys in college who just come into a computer lab where I'm doing homework and park it next to me and refuse to leave. Once, I went to a street dance for a town celebration, and a guy I knew from the dorms came up and started talking to me and he suddenly asked if he could kiss me. I said no thank you, and he leaned in anyway and tried. I backed away and told him to stop and he kept trying, saying you can tell so much about a person by kissing them. I told him I was in a relationship and wasn't interested. He was drinking and I wasn't, so I wasn't TOO worried, but then I immediately said I needed to go home, and he offered to drive me. I was like "No thank you, I'm going to go find my brother" because no way was I getting into a car with a guy who had just tried to assault me and had been drinking, and I didn't want him to know where I lived, so I was also afraid of walking. I walked through the crowd so he couldn't see me, and walked home by a different route. I also had a guy grab my rear when we were with a group of friends. I punched him in the stomach and he laughed. I don't think anyone else saw it or I expect someone would have said something. But out of all those times, no one has ever come up and said "Hey, are you ok? Do you need help?" or anything. It's really sickening.
