I was doing a little shopping on an evening about 8:30 pm in our nice neighborhood of Kew Gardens Hills. I was on Union Tpke approaching Main St when I saw
what looked like a homeless person with low hanging pants in a fit of psychotic rage stomping his feet on the ground while yelling in a demonic manner to a young
lady who had just walked past him. I felt somewhat reluctant to approach the young lady feeling she might be traumatized yet further by another stranger approaching
her but I thought it was important to know what had just happened in an attempt to assess how dangerous the scene that I witnessed actually was. I didn’t know
whether he had tried to hurt her or what precipitated the whole thing. So I asked the young lady, in the most gentle way that I knew how, what had just happened. She
said that she had been walking with 2 other girls when this guy just started screaming at them in this frightening way. I said to her that this must be reported and she
said “oh yes”.
I thought for a minute, after verging away from Union Tpke to speak to the young lady, whether I should go back on Union Tpke in the direction that I was going,
towards Key Food, where the psycho had been raging. I decided that not only don’t I want to be intimidated from going to do my shopping at Key Food but I should
turn on the video on my phone and see what he is up to if I pass him. As I’m walking with the video running, I see him on the path walk in front of Dunkin Donuts
where I would have to go to Key Food. So I start filming him from afar and as I approach closer he comes charging at me yelling at me in a blood curdling way
“you faggot - sh-t I’m not playin'!”. The video is on my timeline on Facebook (Abe Fuchs) for anyone who wants to see it. Of course I couldn’t get too close because
I needed to get away from him but I got somewhat of a decent shot of him before I had to scamper off into the parking lot, away from his charge. Luckily, as if trained
like a dog which doesn't go beyond certain boundaries of his domain, he didn’t chase me after I was in the parking lot. On my retreat from this meshugene with his
threatening words, I saw an Orthodox Jew walking with his 2 little girls towards his car, eyeing what just happened and I could see that he was wondering whether
he should get involved by asking me what had happened , the way I had just done with the young lady before.
I walked into Key Food, not only to do some shopping but in a rather secure place to call 911 about this obvious menace - if not outright attack waiting to happen -
that I had just experienced. 911, of course, took my name and phone number with the usual robot-like question about any weapons - as if a crazy person can’t
produce a weapon in a split second time or that he even needs a weapon other than his fists or his push of someone onto the pavement or in front of an oncoming
car in the parking lot. But that’s the system - I understand, but I ask 911 if she knows how long it would be for someone to come. This is not some kind of noise
complaint or fender bender. I thought there’d be some kind of urgency to this situation. She can’t tell me how long it would be so I asked whether it’s crucial for me
to wait at Key Food - after all they have my phone number and I live a few blocks away - I could be there within 5 minutes when they come and she says it’s
not crucial for me to be there for the police to investigate and act if they deem it necessary.
After I’m home for an hour or so I wonder what ever happened to my call to 911 bc no one ever called me. I call the 107th precinct but there’s no answer - just ringing.
I let a couple more hours go by - still no one calls from the police. I call the precinct again but still no one answers when I press 0 for the operator and I get a recording
from community affairs. So I dared to call 911 again to find out what had happened with my complaint of a dangerous person. 911 didn’t scold me for calling
again but simply said that the police had shown up but there’s no further information about it. We agree that I’ll get information about the call if I go to the precinct.
The next day I go to the precinct. Thinking that there’s some report about the incident and about the police when they arrived to speak to the deranged person - I ask
if I can see the report. The officer then asks me whether I was there to meet the police. I say “no, 911 told me I don’t have to wait for them”. "How would we proceed
if there is no complainant?" is the reply from the officer. “911 told me it’s not necessary for me to wait there and they had my phone number - but never got a call from
them” I answered. “If you weren’t there then there’s no report. “Are there any injuries?” is the next question. “No” is my reply. “So what’s the problem?” he wants to
know. So I tell him the story of being accosted in a threatening and menacing way. Seeming not to hear what I said - he says something to the effect that it sounds like
a mere case of harassment which is just a violation. So I asked him to look at the video and he would see that he was charging me and yelling at me in a clearly threatening
manner. “Ok, let’s see it” he says. So the next thing he questions is “how do you know that he was coming after you?” "He was coming right at me” is my answer. And
then - why I would turn on a video before I even saw him so I answered that I saw him before, screaming at the young lady. Then, on the video I say to myself “oh there
he is” so the officer says “it looks like you were looking for him”. So I explained that I intended to go to Key Food anyway - to which he says “so you weren’t in fear of him.
If you were in fear of him you would have avoided the whole area”. What a chutzpah! I should cower in fear to avoid a possible danger from this lunatic. I said to him
“I have a right to see whether he’s a menace to our community" - meaning, even if there was a level of fear it is rational to explore whether it’s real or not to determine
what action needs to be taken, if it is real. Since when is some degree of fear a reason not to proceed with life whether it is shopping or taking action on a danger that
confronts us? Are police officers not to do their job in some circumstances if they have some fear in doing so? Of course not - fear, depending on the level, is not
necessarily a reason for not proceeding with what needs to be done.
So then he says “we know this guy - he’s in and out of mental wards. When he’s off his meds he gets this way but he’s not going to hurt you." I say “you know him
but people don’t know him and one day he’s going to pop and hurt someone”. How many times do we have to hear of some psycho who shoves someone in front of an
oncoming subway? Or people who just randomly start stabbing or cutting others? But here’s the real shocker - he says “we can’t charge him with criminality because
he’s mentally ill”. What??? So I said “it can’t be both ways. If he’s mentally ill he shouldn’t be outside among us. If he’s outside among us that means that he’s not
mentally ill”. All academic. So he says “if you want to fill out an anonymous report, you can go ahead”. I said “I want to fill out whatever report I’m entitled to fill out”.
There was someone ahead of me and I didn’t have time to do the report that day so I told the clerk in the recording office that I’d be back. Before leaving, I asked the
clerk whether I’d be filling out an anonymous report because that’s what the officer at the desk told me. She answers me “well whatever he told you, is what it is,
because he’s the sergeant”. Yikes.
Incidentally, just a couple months ago, I was spat at in the face by a homeless person on a subway just as he was getting off the train. When the conductor was helping
me with info about the train to give to the police, he asked “So did you have words with him or something? - it must have been something”. I told him - I had nothing to
do with him - in fact I didn’t even look at the guy when I vaguely saw and heard him do a crazy dance right before leaving the train. I knew not to turn my head to look
in his direction but he jumped over to me anyway and spit right in my face. The cops then also said that spitting is not an assault - just harassment - a violation which
doesn’t even merit getting witness statements for. I heard on the radio that a woman reported a homeless person hitting her in the stomach and the police didn't want to
file a report. An incident about a year ago comes to mind, of a nutty person brandishing a small knife to a friend of mine telling my friend to move from where he was
on the sidewalk. Even though there was surveillance tape of the incident from a store’s video recorder, the police, under our dear mayor De Blasio, didn’t want to act
on it or even take a report. How can they? Mentally ill people who commit crimes can’t be criminals! Don’t we understand that? De Blasio must be voted out this coming
election. All of us who are smart enough to be registered Democrat must come out to the Primaries and vote for the most decent Democrat there is on the slate be it Tony
Avella, Bo Diddle, a career detective who knows which way is up - or whoever else is running. In the general election you can vote for whomever you like but we must
come out to defeat De Blasio, who is on his way to destroy our city. Rome wasn’t built in a day and it wasn’t destroyed in a day. But De Blasio is like a termite who is
gnawing away at our quality of life and eventually at our basic freedoms.