"I need to decompress "

[Hawkwrench]

This may take awhile, so bear with me. Saturday afternoon, my wife and I pulled into the local gas station to fill up before we were to meet my daughter and her family for a get together.

As we were about to leave, the car that was parked in front of us pulled away, but stopped beside our car. My wife and I both looked over just in enough time to see the passenger (woman) squeeze in between the front seats and reach over and began to violently shake and beat a child strapped into the child seat. 

We both jumped out and screamed at her to stop beating that baby!!!

I've seen alot of crazy stuff as an EMT and later on as a auxiliary Police Officer back in the late 80's and early 90's, but NEVER have I seen a small child being shaked and smacked like that. 

We tried to corral her in with the help of a few other citizens, but her and the driver managed to get away. The Police were called and they came, took down some info and began to search for her.

For the last 3 days, my wife and I have not slept well at all because of what we saw.

I hold a Ky CCW permit, but did not have my weapon on me because I was wearing sweats due to surgery Monday. If I had my weapon then, I would have drew it to protect that little child. I felt like at that moment, that child's life was in danger of great bodily harm.

 

So I guess this is a MILD form of PTSD???

 

Tim

Edited October 20, 2020 by Hawkwrench

[robertmro]

This isn't the right place for this discussion. That might sound insensitive but you are venturing into the politically charged topic of who should carry guns and take the law into their hands. Some would say you would be justified but other would say that if everyone is armed and free decide when to enforce the law things could get out of control very quickly. I think most people would agree that you could gotten into a lot of legal trouble if you had used your gun.

 

I'm have deep sympathy for you because I can understand the emotions you felt. I have strong feels about this issue but I think your minister, priest, rabbi or a therapist would be a better person to discuss this with.

 

We all wish the best for the members of our small community and want to support them.

 

You did the best you could.

Robert

[Hawkwrench]

I respectably disagree. The gun (weapon as it's actually called!!!) was not the focus of the post. I was merely trying to convey the seriousness of how badly this child was being abused in so much as the definition of deadly force was being brought into the situation. 

This wasn't just a smack on the leg, this defenseless  restrained child was in imminent danger of great bodily harm which is justification for the use of up to and including deadly force if needed.

Nor am I trying to raise a dispute or disagreement on being armed. 

Just trying to get some peace by getting it my chest. Hence "decrompressing"

 

Tim

[LSP_Mike]

While I understand your point, I am pretty sure had you drawn a weapon, you would face legal jeopardy. You make a valid point, yet on uncertain legal ground. As imperfect a scenario, as it sounds, the police were the correct choice. A citizens arrest maybe, but film would be your strongest suit 

Society is never perfect.

[quang]

Just imagine what might have happened to that poor child if that woman had herself a ‘weapon’ as she’s entitled to!

Having said that, I don’t see what your initial post have anything to do with ‘large’, ‘scale’ and ‘planes’.

Edited October 21, 2020 by quang

[Jeff T]

1 hour ago, quang said:

, I don’t see what your initial post have anything to do with ‘large’, ‘scale’ and ‘planes’.

This is General Discussion, there are a lot of topics in this forum that dont have anything to do with Large Scale Planes.

 

Jeff.

[RadBaron]

6 hours ago, Hawkwrench said:

This may take awhile, so bear with me. Saturday afternoon, my wife and I pulled into the local gas station to fill up before we were to meet my daughter and her family for a get together...

 

 

That's an unenviable position to be in, and you did the right thing in trying to make a difference. 

Edited October 21, 2020 by RadBaron

[dodgem37]

Terrifying.  You, and others, did everything you could possible do to intervene and restrain her at the time of the occurrence short of violence.  Staying outside the vehicle was the only option.  Attempting to enter the car thru an unlocked door was out of the question.  Too fraught with danger.  You did the right thing.  Telephone video, license plate number.  Description.

 

There is no such thing as a MILD form of PTSD.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[thierry laurent]

This is indeed a ptsd status. 

[LSP_Matt]

Hi Tim,

 

An awful situation for you. I can only empathise having faced a similar situation.  I think my reaction was similar to yours. It doesn't leave you feeling terribly heroic for having not chosen to be a bystander and becoming involved. It just leaves you feeling awful.

In my case my intervention stopped a woman being horribly bashed but when he took off, with her in the car it left me wondering whether I'd made it better or worse for her.

I can only reconcile that I acted with good faith to protect her human rights, proportionately, and that the rest is beyond my control. Some people endure a lot of hardship they don't deserve.

But yeah...it doesn't feel great.

 

HTH Matty

[MikeMaben]

You could have just blown a back tire out.

They wouldn't have gotten far. Easy catch

for the police.

There are too many details left out of Tim's

story for any of us to make judgements about

what 'we' would have done, or not done. It

sounds like one of those 'you had to be there'

situations.

[Hawkwrench]

9 hours ago, quang said:

Just imagine what might have happened to that poor child if that woman had herself a ‘weapon’ as she’s entitled to!

Having said that, I don’t see what your initial post have anything to do with ‘large’, ‘scale’ and ‘planes’.

You obviously don't pay attention to the forum title 

"General Discussion "

 

Tim

[Kagemusha]

Can we please take it down a few notches and consider carefully before posting.

[Dennis7423]

Hawk-

 

What a terrible situation to be in. As an Officer/Detective going on 12 years now, I can imagine the adrenaline and concern that was coursing through your veins. It's mere seconds to make a decision, that you will spend countless hours mulling over for the next however long it takes.

 

Based on my experiences (I'm also a counseling student, having my Masters in Chaplaincy), what you are experiencing is PTS, or Post-Traumatic Stress. You don't have a disorder, and the body'a natural reaction to stress is not a disorder. What you are experiencing is completely normal. When I have an adrenaline dump during a true critical incident at work, it takes 72 hours or so to run its course through my body. That's a long time to be awake processing something that just occurred.

 

The way I have been taught, and it makes perfect sense, is that traumatic thoughts first settle into the front of your brain, where thoughts are stored. Active stuff. The back of your brain? That's where memories go. The trick is getting the incident moved from a thought to a memory. Trauma is like concrete; the longer you take to move it, the harder it is to move. That's when trauma can really root itself an be a constant problem.

 

The three best ways to process stress/trauma are to draw it, write about it, or talk about it. I recommend finding a good counselor that you can plop down with and talk about what happened. Also, keep a journal next to your bed and any time you're having thoughts related to the incident, jot down what you're thinking, and most importantly, what you're feeling. It helps to get it out.

 

If you want to discuss the incident further, feel free to send me a PM, and we can make arrangements to chat about it.

 

Sorry you had to experience that.

 

- Dennis S.

  Thornton, CO USA

[Hawkwrench]

Let me add a little insight to the incident. First of all, I never said I would have fired my weapon. 

That would not have happened unless after REPEATED warnings to "stop beating the child" were not working and the child was continuing to be beaten, then and only then would I have CONSIDERED using the appropriate force to stop the threat to the child.

Sometimes just drawing your weapon and unfortunately pointing it at the threat will stop the situation from escalating as many Law enforcement officers well know (including myself).

No matter what, this was a tragic incident that I hope gets the justice it deserves!!!

 

Tim