“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” – William James

Captain Australia’s Crime Fighting Journal, Entry#50

I regret to report that I’ve been quite sick this past 24 hours, although I am successfully fighting off the virus.  While out on patrol friday night, I received a message that my infant son was sick, and hurried home to care for him.   Subsequent, it’s been hours of fretful care for the boy, no sleep, fighting off sickness.  We’re through the worst of it now.

The patrol on friday was an interesting experience, and very different to the patrols to-date.

So far, when I’ve gone out into the city, looking for crime and bad behaviour has almost played a secondary role to reaching out to the community.  My primary objective has been to meet people, learn their stories and share my own.   To try and intrigue and inspire people, and if I can’t achieve that, then at least to amuse them.

Friday night was different.

I tried to achieve a level of concealment where possible, playing the role of observer.

Firstly, I’ll make a general social comment:  people just don’t seem to care.

I observed a wide range of minor crimes – public urination, litter, jaywalking.  All criminal acts, but not really appropriate for me to intervene.  Can you imagine me leaping from the tree above to land in front of a guy taking a quiet wee and yelling “Stop Criminal !”.  Or, alternatively, can you imagine me photographing him, and calling the police ?  “Police, come quickly, there’s a man peeing in a public place !  I have a photo of his dingus !”

So, obviously, I don’t think I can actively intervene when I see a minor crime.  What I did do was sometimes reveal myself to the people acting badly, and call them out.  I’ll briefly describe one encounter with three asian guys who were throwing fast-food at one another while walking down the street.  I was watching a nearby night-club from the branches of a majestic old tree that sits in the middle of a busy thoroughfare, and they walked right below me.  I dropped behind them (earning a panicked yelp from one of the boys), and then approached while they eyed me with open wariness.  Gesturing at the mangled mess of food that they’d left in their trail, I asked them who was going to clean it, and if they thought it was the right thing to do.

Wonderfully, the four of us then turned and picked up the pieces of mess they had made and put it in the bin!  I commend those young men for acknowledging their bad behaviour and taking steps to remedy.

It was an interesting feeling to watch people from hiding, and if you do it for six hours or so on a friday night you will come away with the overall impression that people are cynical, cruel and self-absorbed.  You don’t see much kindness or compassion when you watch people out on a friday night.  And some of the conversations you’ll overhear ?  Scandalous!

Anyway, the most disturbing encounter happened around 2:30am.

I’d climbed up into a little alcove of plant-life near a major city nightclub.  Just a few levels below me was a long line of people waiting for taxis.

I observed a young woman, heavy-set, with blonde hair and a short ‘party-girl’ dress.  She was stumbling up around, pausing to try and gather her senses (or struggling not to vomit).  She joined the line of people waiting for a taxi.  I noted at one point that she fell asleep and the line continued to move forward around her.  At another point, she was leaning against a car and slipped, falling onto her bum and banging her head on the car.  Nobody offered to help her.

That saddens me – that the line continued to move around her and nobody offered to help her, she was just a spectacle, a cautionary example.  When she did get approached, it was by predators.

I saw two young men approach her and start speaking with her.  I couldnt hear what was said, but it was clear by their manner that they weren’t acquainted.  They convinced her to walk away with them.

If I had video, I guess you could see and judge for yourself.  My equipment isnt great and may not have captured the tone of the surveillance at a distance and in the dark, but it was very obvious to me that these men intended to take sexual advantage of this girl.  In my mind, it’s tantamount to rape.

I followed them, pursuing at a distance, until I saw that they were going to a nearby car-park – so I moved in and approached them.  The girl was clearly incapacitated, she was staggering along, and in the encounter did not speak coherently.

The two men reacted exactly as guilty schoolboys would when they’ve been caught doing something wrong.  They claimed to know the girl, although as I interrogated them (and to a lesser extent, her), it became clear that they didnt even know her name.

In essence, I said to them: I don’t know if you are evil people, but its clear to me that you are planning to do a cruel and evil thing.  You can’t be prosecuted for what you plan to do, but I urge you, in all seriousness, to think long and hard about your lives, and where this path will ultimately take you.  Turn it around and start to respect people.  Respect yourselves.

I left them and took the girl back to the taxi rank.  On the way I was able to get a look at her purse and find out where she lived (and that she had no money).  We walked past the folks waiting in line (I think the superhero costume has its benefits, nobody complained), and put her in a taxi.  I gave the taxi driver some money and wrote down his license number, instructing him to take her home.

That was the highlight of the patrol.  Overall it was rainy, bleak and depressing.

I’ll try to think of ways that I can conduct a serious patrol like that and still have the entourage collecting video.