One block away from EPD station, 911 not working, assault on me prevented thanks to IHOP manager

 

(I was on this block close to where the car was parked)

It takes seconds for someone to assault you. There are some known criminals, potential criminals and others who lurk mainly on 5th street from the bus stop near Eureka City Hall to 5th and Broadway.

I am not the only one in danger. I have written about some encounters before but this time there was no place to take shelter and this was in in the middle of the day around lunchtime. Others will relate to the post because if you work or live downtown; this is a daily occurence. I don't think these two different people who I encountered at different times today know me. I just happen to be the target available at that time for the misdirected hate of two people who cannot be bothered to change their situation. It was the afternoon encounter where I narrowly escaped getting assaulted.

This is just a hazard of living in an economically depressed County lax about drug use and a refusal to hold people accountable.

This morning on my way to the courthouse, near 5th and I street, I was trying to cross and avoid the impatient drivers who almost run  pedestrians over because the concept that people can cross on a green light in a sidewalk is alien to many Humboldt drivers. I noticed a new lunatic was screaming and insulting people. I would have ignored him had he not forced me off the sidewalk while someone decided to speed up, turn on I and almost hit me. I did get into a shouting match with him and that was my choice but he also left. Guess my last remark to him was the blunt truth he did not want to hear. Sometimes you have to remind people this is a public sidewalk and not their personal sidewalk.

Later around lunchtime, I am walking by the Humboldt Bay Fire station and Eureka Police Department main station with groceries when  GMOS = grown man on a skateboard starts yelling and coming towards me. He wouldn't back off, kept threatening me. No idea who he was and he was probably high. 

I told him to step back a few times. Then warned him I would be calling the police. 911 was not working when I need it. Not a police car or officer in sight. He told me to go ahead, call the police and he would wait for me. Started advancing at me with his skateboard and who knows what else in his hand while I am wondering why my 911 call will not go through. Trying to take a photo but my phone is stuck in emergency call mode.

I heard "John, are you okay". It was one of the managers at IHOP who I have known for years just from around the neighborhood. I don't know what this guy was on but she calmed him down, he stepped away as soon as he saw her and he darted across 5th street in the midst of traffic towards 3rd or 2nd. Had someone hit this loser, the online keyboard warriors would blame the driver instead of this violent, sociopath attacking random strangers and darting out in traffic.

Right after this happened, around 3 p.m. someone was assaulted near Free Meal on 3rd street by a guy with a skateboard who fled the scene.

I don't scare easily and I can take care of myself but today I am so grateful to that lady. It was not the police, it was not a single passerby or a man who came to my aid. It was someone kind and a hard working woman from my community who took a risk to reach out and make sure I was okay. It was someone who has not changed the way she treats me in 21 years and is a decent human being who cared about another person.

I don't want to hear about mental illness or drugs. I don't care. Especially from people with no clue, sitting in the comfort of their homes who do not deal daily with the filth that walks the street emboldened by enablers. There is poverty and hardship all over the world. Drugs as an escape is weak people in this country coddled with no consequences. 

I was at Paul's Live from New York in Eureka sometime in the last month and heard an employee say, "I don't want to be here. I cannot wait to go home and get high." I have heard people in white collar jobs say the same thing and they are white, Christian and affluent with property. What is the stress in their life other than wanting to get high?

21 years of increasing crime with able bodied hoodlums and zombies endangering law abiding citizens of Humboldt because they are enabled by PC touchy feely keyboard warriors who encourage drug use and make excuses for people who should be on and take their meds. Law enforcement and court resources wasted on repeat offenders who need to grow up and deal with life. Many of these enablers are the same useless feel good protestors who think standing outside the Courthouse is going to have any impact on the Trump administration. No one in Washington D.C. or even a California politician is losing sleep over a Humboldt protest.

If these people had guts, they would take on the evil here in Humboldt and the entrenched systems and local abuses of power. It takes one person to make a difference. Go thank the hardworking IHOP managers and staff, the barista at your local coffee place, the small restaurant owner who makes you feel like every body knows your name. These are the people who face daily abuse, don't get paid enough and genuinely care. I have stepped in when they get attacked because that is what you do in a community. Facebook and social media has ruined civilization and made people self centered, self absorbed and callous.

The Make Eureka Depressing Again parking lot contingent can clutch their pearls and try and blame crime on Eureka City Council when many of them are or know greedy landlords and property owners. Why are Security National, Kramer and some other property owners downtown  allowing empty storefronts and buildings to be vacant for years then complaining about the piss soaked streets and crime. I was at an event with local business leaders years ago when Rob Arkley said that instead of empty storefronts downtown; maybe reduce a rent reduction should be considered. 

The same 1% local conservatives and liberals   have been in charge for decades and have improved nothing. Things have worsened. Time for new leadership and new faces.

Some of you also need to clean up the buildings you own and have a zero drug tolerance on your properties. Some of you don't mind living high on the hog from the overpriced rents you charge which includes folks you look down upon.  The money you get from "those people" supports you, your spoiled progeny and sycophants who need to get a real job. If certain locals weren't so busy chasing away "outsiders" or feeling threatened by talent and gave jobs and supported businesses on merit instead of hiring their entitled family and friends, we would have a thriving Humboldt and a bustling Eureka downtown of productive people living and working and watching out for each other.  Instead we have walking dead zombies, GMOBs and GMOS on 6th, 5th and 4th preying on others in the middle of the day.