cops and robbers

someone tried to rob me monday night. i was outside Sol y Soul’s office in downtown Chinatown around 7pm just chillin waiting for students to show up for our meeting. i was texting or doing something on my iPhone when this wannabe thief tries to grab it out of my hand and run. i hold on. he holds on. we struggle and he gets away with it and runs down the block. i chase him down the block yelling for people to grab him, but of course nobody helps (i can’t really blame them too much though). dude ain’t very fast though, so i catch up to him and we go at it. after a minute of fistycuffs this bum decides to smash my phone on the ground and run away. i collect my broken phone and broken glasses and walk back to Sol y Soul where some nice lady called the cops for me. don’t worry, i am not hurt bad at all, but it was a very crazy situation and i can’t stop replaying it in my head. i am very ashamed of myself that i let that crazy situation turn me into a violent person. here i was fighting a complete stranger on the streets, ready to stab dude in the neck with my good poetry pen, all over some stupid phone. a material possession that can easily be replaced. i’m very lucky that i did not get hurt worse, and that i did not hurt him worse. the cops came quick, but i don’t think they ever got the guy, and after staring people down on the metro for two days i’ve decided that i will not go and identity him if they call me in for a lineup, because our human memory is so bad, especially in heated moments like that. i’ve studied too much criminal justice to go and contribute to such an injust system of identification. okay, that is enough venting. i’m gonna go talk with my friends at City at Peace and they will help me root this violence out of my system.