The real Reality
Many of us are aware of such TV shows as "America's Most Wanted," and recently burgeoning of reality shows on TV. But what we aren't aware of is that watching such scenarios on TV is different than when we witness them ourselves.
Last night as I was walking out of my apartment to catch a campus bus, a red sedan sped up the one-way street, going in the wrong direction. In the meantime, I heard police sirens. I then made the assumption that the red car was being chased by police and just as I was pondering why, I heard a loud crashing sound, coming from that red sedan, which obviously collided with another car going the right way on the one-way street. The collision took place at a bend of the road, with parked cars on both sides.
Then I saw several police cars coming up the street as well. A few other bystanders were around to witness this, whereby they must have saw the "criminals" running away from their crashed car. The bystanders then waved at the police cars to turn onto the street where one of the "criminals" was running, and subsequently, the felon was apprehended and escorted away from the scene.
In midst of all this, about 10 other squad cars showed up, some are Chicago Police, other are U of C police. 2 firefighter trucks arrived, followed by a newsvan, and lastly, an ambulence. The crowd began to gather around the street corners and gossiped with each other. Within 10 minutes of the crash, the police took everything under control and the crowd began to disperse as quickly as they had gathered.
Later I found out from the news that a shooting had taken place on 39th and King Drive (a rather run-down ghetto area of Chicago) and that two people involved in the shooting were the ones driving the red sedan. One police officer was slightly injured at the crash.
It was scary for a moment when I saw one cop jumped out of his car and trying to put on a bullet-proof vest. Clearly, the bystanders were in danger since we didn't know if the felons still carried weapons.
As a bystander, there is no way to train for such situations or to prepare for them. I guess the main thing would be to keep yourself safe and alert.
Many of us are aware of such TV shows as "America's Most Wanted," and recently burgeoning of reality shows on TV. But what we aren't aware of is that watching such scenarios on TV is different than when we witness them ourselves.
Last night as I was walking out of my apartment to catch a campus bus, a red sedan sped up the one-way street, going in the wrong direction. In the meantime, I heard police sirens. I then made the assumption that the red car was being chased by police and just as I was pondering why, I heard a loud crashing sound, coming from that red sedan, which obviously collided with another car going the right way on the one-way street. The collision took place at a bend of the road, with parked cars on both sides.
Then I saw several police cars coming up the street as well. A few other bystanders were around to witness this, whereby they must have saw the "criminals" running away from their crashed car. The bystanders then waved at the police cars to turn onto the street where one of the "criminals" was running, and subsequently, the felon was apprehended and escorted away from the scene.
In midst of all this, about 10 other squad cars showed up, some are Chicago Police, other are U of C police. 2 firefighter trucks arrived, followed by a newsvan, and lastly, an ambulence. The crowd began to gather around the street corners and gossiped with each other. Within 10 minutes of the crash, the police took everything under control and the crowd began to disperse as quickly as they had gathered.
Later I found out from the news that a shooting had taken place on 39th and King Drive (a rather run-down ghetto area of Chicago) and that two people involved in the shooting were the ones driving the red sedan. One police officer was slightly injured at the crash.
It was scary for a moment when I saw one cop jumped out of his car and trying to put on a bullet-proof vest. Clearly, the bystanders were in danger since we didn't know if the felons still carried weapons.
As a bystander, there is no way to train for such situations or to prepare for them. I guess the main thing would be to keep yourself safe and alert.
