desh | (no subject)

On my way home from lunch just now, I walked by this county assistance office that I frequently happen past. Sitting out front on the step were two or three women and about five kids. One of the women was being rather rough with a kid who I think was about 5 or 6. She was lifting him an inch off of the ground by the front of his shirt, cursing at him to fucking shut up and sit down inside (or something), speaking quite sternly from just a couple inches away from his face, and so on.

I glared at her a bit, we made eye contact, and I walked away. When I was about 25 paces down the street, she started again. I looked back at her again. I was really disturbed by this. I looked around for a cop to flag down, but I didn't see one.

The next block, I ran into a couple coworkers leaving for a late lunch. I explained what I saw and asked them what they thought I should do. We agreed that flagging down a cop would be nice if there was one around. We debated calling 911 but weren't sure if it was worth it. We would've called the non-emergency police number if we knew of one. We just weren't sure.

Just then a cop drove by. I flagged him down and explained the situation.

He said, "You know all these murders around?" (Philadelphia is at its highest murder rate in decades.) "They're happening because there's not enough of that. Not enough discipline."

I said that I disagreed, and that maybe the murder rate is up because there's too much of that variety of discipline.

He said that he didn't like all the disciplining-by-talking that's been happening, and that parents need to be stronger with their kids. I told him that I disagreed, thanked him, and walked back to my coworkers.

"Well, that just made a bad day worse," I said.

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And I had *almost* regained my belief in the Philadelphia police department. Thank goodness that's gone again. [/sarcasm]

Just for shits and giggles, I just googled to see if there is an non-emergency number. Apparently it's also 911.

Well that's good to know. The 911 operators must love that.

Sigh.

The last time I had to call a non-911 police number, I was told to call 911 (and this was out in the suburbs). Does anyone know is this is becoming a common practive?

*sighs*

People suck sometimes.

I find it very hard to watch parenting through fear, especially because it is setting the example for that child's parenting in the future. The interesting thing is, they've done studies that show that through more support and education given to a woman through her pregnancy and in the first year of her baby's life, a closer more loving bond can be formed and it can actually affect the way she relates to her child, regardless of the way she was disciplined. Programs that provide free at home visits from nurses, midwives, and doctors that aim to educate can make a big difference- some people don't know any better and really do want the best from their children, they just haven't had good parenting modeled for them.

FYI: Next time, go inside and tell a case worker or call Child Welfare. And I agree, if you something like that, you NEED to report that. Just think, if she does that in public, what do the kids suffer in private?

Yeah, you're probably right. I was just so demoralized after talking to the cop...