Random acts of violence

So last night was really disturbing, but also showed me a lot of great things about human nature. Mike and I were leaving Joe DiMaggio's (a restaurant in North Beach) and were walking past Washington Square Park, a pretty small park in a very populated area. For Jen, this is where we went and sat after we had mimosas at Lime with Ethan, Wyeth, Logan, etc. For Brandi and Beth, same park as where the huge North Beach festival was that we watched from the roof of that house party. Anyway, we're walking past and there are 3 people, a girl and 2 guys. The girl started screaming bloody murder and Mike thought she was high or messing around but I could tell something was really wrong, so we ran over to her. One of her guy friends was laying on the ground, pouring blood from his head. Pouring.

Here's where it gets even more messed up...I heard her call 911 and apparently a random guy walked up with some huge piece of metal and started beating her friend in the back of the head. Didn't steal any money, just wanted to inflict harm. In the 11 months I've lived here, I just haven't seen any violence in SF up to this point and have felt so safe. I was totally shaken.

The silver lining to this is the awesome people of SF who make up the majority of the population. Aside from Mike and me, about 10 other people ran over to help. One guy ripped his own shirt off and started applying pressure to the victim's head. One guy ran to a nearby restaurant for towels. I threw in my jacket and scarf because this poor guy was bleeding a LOT. Other guys were trying to figure out where the attacker went. Complete strangers all came together to try to help these people out and it was incredible to see, although very sad. The fire trucks and police were there within about a minute or two, which is really comforting and a benefit of living in a city that is only 7 miles x 7 miles.

Bottom line, I'll definitely be more aware of my surroundings now. I always figured I was safe if I stayed away from the Tenderloin and kept my night activities to North Beach, the Marina, Pac Heights or other well lit, populated areas. But I'm not in Alabama anymore, that's for sure.