Called a Hero

If there is anything that can be said for yesterday, it’s that it was nothing short of interesting. Where do I begin?

To start, I did get some more rest in the morning – was still sniffling a little. Then got into the studio and started making a cue for a video game. Then it was off to Santa Monica to have a coffee lunch with a friend where we chatted about other parts of the country, music, and life.

From there it was off to another part of Santa Monica where I was to get a mountain bike ride in with another group of friends. That ride was supposed to start at 4:30. By the time they were all ready to rock and ride it got to be about 6 p.m. The plan changed from mountain biking to riding along the strand. Off we went down to Ocean from 5th and Santa Monica. The choice was to head North towards San Vicente before heading down to the beach to ride.

Along Ocean right near Arizona something very strange happened. Something that took a lot of us by surprise. Rather, took a lot of people in the area by surprise. When you think you’ve seen it all, Los Angeles can easily throw a curve at you. [geez Jody, get to the point already is probably what you’re saying in your head].

Ok, my friend Russell and I were leading the way down the running path. Up ahead in front of me running towards me was a rather pretty woman. Moments later I could see a guy dressed in street clothes running at full sprint towards Russell. I actually said to him, Russell it looks like this dude is planning on running into you and tackling you. Russ didn’t really acknowledge what I said. When suddenly the guy coming up from the behind the woman made a sharp turn across the path, crossed over, reached out and grabbed her ass from behind.

Mind you, she jumped sideways obviously not expecting to have been grabbed on the ass. Immediately caught his hand threw it to the side and yelled at him saying, NOT COOL! All this while they were running towards us. He split off and ran to the right past Russell and she went left of me. Russell grabbed the guy’s shirt who then deflected off Russell as the two of us yelled at him saying, dude, what the fuck are you doing that was totally uncalled for.

He broke away and ran towards the street. As we turned around from a stop, the guy then ran past Dan and came back around towards the woman. He grabbed her by the arm, tugged at her then swung with his right arm and popped her in the face. Immediately he let her go and turned to run up Arizona. The woman was dazed and confused, the three of us turned to take off after the guy. In the process Russell took his bike and thrust it at the guy. It smacked the dude and dropped him in the street at Ocean and Arizona. As the guy started to get up Daniel ran and sat behind him and put him in a head lock as Russell grabbed his bike, I went to make sure the woman was ok. Another guy who saw this grabbed the dude’s foot and dragged him out of the street as Dan and Russ kept him incapacitated.

The guy that pulled him out of the street got him down on his face and his side and held him down while we called the police. The woman was in a state of shock and mentioned that she was in a bit of pain as hit her pretty square on the jaw. As I came back to see if any help was needed in containing him, an SUV stopped in the street, rolled down the window and asked if we wanted him to videotape us beating on him for YouTube. We weren’t beating on him (though he really deserved it). We refused and the SUV took off. A crowd of people started to gather around. Most people that saw it couldn’t believe what had happened.

The guy was easily someone in need of medication or had medication and wasn’t taking it. We questioned him and found out that he had been doing this sort of thing for a while. He had never been caught. He was laughing about it. Laughing in a way that clearly showed he didn’t care. He also mentioned that he had hit other women in much the same way. That’s downright disturbing. Then mentioned he’d never been arrested for it, or caught. Fortunately for this woman, his luck changed.

It took the police, the fire dept and the paramedics roughly 20 minutes to arrive at the scene. The first policeman immediate hand cuffed the guy so we didn’t have to contain him. Then the fire dept and the paramedics attended to the woman, making sure she was ok. I think more than the actual punch, she was in a state of shock. I mean, really, to be in a zone and then get violated and assaulted like that has to be a bit unnerving, especially for a woman like that. She was pretty (I’m sure she still is).

We relayed the account of what happened to the fire dept and the police. The odd thing is, it seemed like the cops really weren’t planning on booking the guy for anything. I mean c’mon we all saw it, we took him down. He should be booked on assault.

Once that all died down, we continued on our ride. Where at another point we came in contact with a older gentleman who had immigrated from Russia. He was asking if we were aware of the process of the mosques being built on sites where something of significance had been destroyed. I had read something about in the past week or so, but Russ and Dan had not. This guy was looking to chat about it and let us know that he hopes the younger generation doesn’t allow for America to lose it’s great nation and freedoms.

Two very weird interactions in a short span of an afternoon.

What was strange was having a couple of guys on the fire dept squad call us heroes for stepping in and doing what we did. I’m not sure I’d call it heroic more than it was or at least felt like it was the right thing to do. I mean c’mon, some random stranger grabs a woman’s ass and shocks the shit out of her, then moments later gives her a right hook? What else are you gonna do?

If I have to explain why I decided to roll with Hero Unexpected then I’m guessing you’ve got a lack of moral value going on or something. Enjoy the song and may you never have to be a victim in some such circumstance like that.

Wild.