Most Saturday nights couples are out having dinner at a nice
restaurant or out at the movies but this past Saturday night we thought it
would be fun to pay a quick visit to a friend that works at a local hotel and
it became an event.
We usually hear from her about how boring the job is and how
it at least allows her to get some homework done and that night was no
different. We arrive with coffee for her
and we begin to make her laugh and catch up.
After some time had gone by the front desk phone rings and it is a complaint
from one guest about another guest on the floor below them. Our friend goes up to check it out and
realizes that it’s a room full of young people having a “good time” as a cloud
of smoke leaves the room she realizes that this is going to be a challenge. She does her job to notify them of the rules
and that people are going to have to leave and they had 10mins to do so. She comes back down and tells us the story. We continue talking and I start to water the
plants (small odd things I do when I visit people) then out the corner of my
eye I notice a police car (actually it was my constant paranoia of the police
that alerted me) and I ask my friend if she called the police and she said
no. As we stood there and watched
another squad car roll up she says that maybe another guest called the police
but then I see the officer place his AR-15 rifle on the hood of his car and I
turn and say to her “oh man this guy is taking it too seriously!”
I suddenly feel comfortable in this situation police, guns,
confusion, more police, and I start to wonder how I will react to their poor
reactions to whatever it is that is going to happen. The officers come into the lobby of the hotel
and state their purpose and it was to enter a room of a guest in the hotel that
had nothing to do with the young people having a “smoking” party on the same
floor as these officers were looking to go.
So once the officers were ready to go up, a total of five, they had
shields, one AR-15 with a double clip locked and ready, and Tasers in hand with
the warning of not letting anyone use the elevators.
As people were asked to evacuate the floor where the police
were at people began to gather in the lobby wondering what is going on. Some looked very scared others were talking
about going to the exercise room to be as far away as possible from whatever
will happen. I was impatient because two
people that I care about are there and I would want anything to happen to them
so like a paced back and forth to keep an eye on what was going on. I’ve seen these types of things go wrong
quickly and sometimes these cops are like a light switch, once they’re on you
gotta make sure someone hits the off switch quickly.
So in the end the cops come down with a guy that seems to
have made a call about killing himself and the police felt the need to react
the way they did but the adventure doesn’t stop there!
Back to the room filled with young people smoking…after some
of these young folk saw the police some left the hotel and others just hung
around. Four youth walk into the lobby and
one asks to have a room opened so that he can get his hat and once my friend
saw that his name was not on the room she told him that she couldn’t do
that. He got upset and sat down to
charge up his phone. He was with three
young women and one of them was obviously drunk and not realizing what was going
on other than wanting to go home. They
started to be loud as they found out that their ride had left without them and
had no plans on coming back for them my friend has a job to do and cannot risk
having this sort of thing play out in the lobby. My friend starts by asking them if they are
waiting something and they said they were waiting for a ride but since they
were only a few feet away it was clear that no one was coming for them. I started to let them know that they couldn’t
hang out and be cussing and being loud in the lobby and that they could keep
trying to find a ride but they had to act right. They did for about three seconds then one
young woman started to yell because the guy that was there with them said ‘naw
they ain’t coming back’ so she was upset.
I got close to them and said “hey keep it down, do you guys need a
number to a cab company or is there anyone else you can call?” The young brother says to me “hey call me a
cab!” I made sure he understood that he
needed to be responsible for that and gave him the number to a cab company I
stood back and watched.
A few minutes went by and they started to argue and cuss and
getting loud and my friend had enough and told them that they now needed to
leave. I saw how upset she was and
jumped in and approached these youth. I
told them that I had already asked them to please keep it down and now they had
worn out their welcome with the hotel and that they would need to leave. The young woman that was drunk starts to sit
up and says to me “I don’t give a fuck who you are and what you saying you
gonna have to call the police to get me outta here!!” I usually don’t like to change my tone with
someone in these cases but this was one of those times I had to do so and I
looked at all of them and said “hey listen just because we out here in the
burbs don’t mean shit to me I’m from the fucking West Side and I don’t put with
this bullshit!” Once they heard that one
of the young women stopped her friends from talking and said she wanted to hear
what I had to say. I told them that my
friend had a job to do and in no way was going to risk it because they decided
to get drunk and high at a hotel and can’t find a way home. I told them that my friend was accommodating to
them but that they had the responsibility to act right and they didn’t so these
were their consequences and being mad at us was not going to help them out.
I looked at this young woman’s eyes and I could see her
desire to not be who she was at that moment but I could also see the lack of
hope in her eyes. I told her “listen if
you don’t like being in this situation then make sure not to find yourself in
this same spot ever again. It’s really
simple all you got to do is NOT hang out with the same people that abandoned
you here change your friends don’t do this stuff” she looked like she wanted to hear more and
her friends kept cussing. The young
woman then says “hey y’all I got papers on me and don’t want to get caught up!” So I told her that the best thing for them to
do is leave before the police come and once outside if you see them just let
them know you leaving and they will leave you alone but if you here when they
get here you burnt up!” She understood
that and got up and started to leave and I made one more pitch to her and said “all
you gotta do is change who you hanging with.”
She turned back to look at me and kept walking and once out the door it
took about 30 seconds before the police rolled up.
That evening could have been a lot worse for those youth (as
I hope that they all made it home safely that night) as well as for my friend
if these youth had already sold themselves the idea of “who gives a shit” point
of view.
My heart goes out to these youth and in particular that
young woman that decided to hear what it was I had to say to her and her
friends. It is a shame that I had act
like a Brother from the hood and cuss for them to hear me but there are times
you have to speak to where people are at in their lives. Sometimes I have to cuss, at least for those I come across, and sometimes it’s making a harsh
statement to shake people into listening when they are doing things or saying things that are not helpful.
What does that say about the people that have to have that happen to
them to create a reaction? It could mean
a lot of things but one thing that stands out for me is that means the person
that has to be shaken into a reaction is someone that is struggling to the
point of losing the ability to communicate effectively. When I come across someone like that I have to
quickly think about what is the context of the situation to respond effectively
and in this case I had to make sure they understood I was from the ‘hood’ and I
was in control not them and they responded in their own ways but it was a
response.
Take some time to sit back and think about what it is that
has to be said to you for you to be shaken up to the point of reaction and you
tell me if that is an effective way to live.
Peace/AMOR
Gerardo
