Such drama, over the past two days.
First, My roommate P socks my other roomate D on the face (and breaking her nose in the process) over something really minor. argument. Then (after some deliberation) D & I call the cops. They come within minutes, question us about what happened, read P her rights, arrest her on charges of battery and assault (and I kid you not)handcuff her and take her away.
This morning, D & I go first to the police station, pick up our copy of the complaint. We then proceed to court, meet with the lawyer D has been assigned, since this is now a criminal case. We appear before the judge and request a restraining order against P, which we are granted. It's all so easy and smooth.
There will be a hearing 10 days hence to determine whether the restraining order will be extended to a year. Sometime in April, the case will come up for hearing. I'm to be present at both hearings since I'm the witness.
If you think calling 911 was excessive, it wasn't. We really were left with no choice. We had to take a stand somewhere, having this past month or two tolerated P's bad behaviour; ignored the childishness and the pettiness(she diluted our soap!). Anyone who knows me (I think) will agree that I'm at best reasonable, and at least try very hard to be. The same goes for D. In fact, sometimes she's nice to the point of being a pushover.
When we called the cops, we didn't know that she'd get arrested. Which I think is a good thing, because had we known then, we might never have made the call. As days progressed, it was becoming increasingly more difficult to live with P, and hopefully all problems will be sorted out one way or the other.
But I still can't believe the turn events have taken.
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17 comments:
no hugging it out?
but wow. doing this in India... all the pleading by the officer not to register a complaint due to the damage it would cause on the family name and all that shit.
Yeah, quite the contrary attitude to what one finds in India. In fact, they told us it was too late to drop charges when they arrested P! And it's impossible to hide a criminal record here. You'd have to mention it in any job/college application. And it'll show up in any background check.
Coo! Interesting lives people seem to be leading :)
I wud av thought u cud hav just cooled the scene down and then thrown this obnoxious character out or something. Calling the Cops is a bit extreme - unless of course the character in question is like an unstable, murderous psycho or something.
But heck - It reminds of movies starring blokes like Ben Stiller - where he goes mad, socks the rich bad guy and has to be subdued by cops . He then comes back to apologize with a sheepish look on his face the next morning !
Do be careful
..well, not to say that their system is not frighteningly silly at times. :P
A couple of questions:
What was this P person's ethnicity?
Is this person a resident of the US?
It does seem a bit extreme, calling the cops and forever blackening someone's record for a broken nose and some diluted soap. What else did this person do? It's the build-up to the arrest that I'm interested in. Details, please!
Bobo: Yeah, you'e right. I'm supporting the system now only because I have a vested interest :)
Abhilash: We spoke to the landlord, who refused to do anything about it. We were left with no choice. To be perfectly honest, we didn't think they'd arrest her. In fact we were quite shaken when they did. We wanted to drop charges, but it was too late, they said. But in hindsight we realised that the incident gave us the perfect oppurtunity to get her out of the house legally (since the landlord wouldn't throw her out). She is a bit psychotic, yes. But we'll be careful, thanks :)
Eye: P's Taiwanese. She went to Brandeis with me. She's on the same visa as I am.
It won't blacken her record forever, don't worry. Nor is she going to jail. Worst that can happen to her is she'll be put on probation for a year, and sent to anger management classes (which she can probably do with). The incident will be erased from her record, provided the court is satisfied with her progress. You know me well enough- do you really think I'd do something like this except under extreme provocation/unless I saw no other alternative?
Ok, details-
Ok, so it wasn't an isolated incident. But it's all so petty and stupid that it's embarrassing to talk about it. She was perfectly nice, until one fine day a month or so ago, when she exploded. Since then she's refused to talk to us, look at us even. We ignored it, for a while and asked her what the problem was. She started yelling- her english isn't too great, so it was all very incoherent.
Apparently her issues with us were (which she expected us to know without her telling us- bizarre) (i)we leave the occasional dirty dish in the sink.
(ii)D left her key in the door once
(iii) D left the gas on once by mistake.Really, that's all.
I don't know what gave her the right to behave as if the house belonged to her.
We tried to make peace a few times, but she refused to see reason. And so the hostilities continued. She'd thump up and down the stairs and slam doors. She'd yell at us whenever we felt like. If she forced to ask us somethig, she'd be as rude as possible. She forbade us from using her things, and this included her TV. We complied. All very petty. And her reaction to our perceived misdeeds- always extreme. Her bath towel was moved a few inches and in retaliation, she threw D's clothes into the dustbin! For some odd reason I am unable to fathom, she's more pissed off with D than she is with me- D's a hell of a lot nicer than I am. More polite, more accommodating...
How do you sustain that kind of anger and spite for weeks on end? And over such petty issues. I still don't get it. And it's kinda scary living with someone who can muster up that much venom.
It was annoying, but we didn't react to anything she said/did. Until things came to a boil. You know why she slapped D? Because D reduced the volume of her radio. I kid you not.
More than anything else, it's the attitude that bothered us more than anything else. That single-minded focus on the three minor negative things that she saw in us, and the refusal to see reason. And you know, she's absolutely convinced that she's right and that we're not only wrong, but evil. There's no dealing with someone like that.
If there had been some other way of getting her out of the house without calling the cops, rest assured we would have done it.
Hmm. Interesting.
Well i'l tell u one thing - Folks of chinese origin (from the mainland/Taiwan/HK/Macau/ and Chinese from other places too - like Malaysia, Sing etc - to a lesser extent)
are jumpy all the time and highly unpredicatable.HIGHLY.
I have several friends, associates from different parts of china, one/two from taiwan too and from different strata - the western educated, older ones are quite alright - but others old & young alike - are highly touchy - ive often receive caustic emails or slap-on-the-face-type cold receptions during personal meetings - for not my faults - but because of some of his/her other problems - which are putting him/her under stress.
They take on a lot of personal pressure - for day to day ups and downs, performance in college, at work and so on - Consequently, they yell a lot and behave unpredictably around friends & associates.[They smoke a lot, drink a lot too during such periods]
Possibly your taiwanese friend has been goin thru a bit of a rough patch or has some untold issue with u & the other roomie or both and is venting it out the usual way.
Mustav been good fun, the whole 3-4 day drama :)
well, my chinese boss stripteased on the road. go figure. :)
damn, the devil is in the details. great blog fodder, i must say. make it more lurid!
Abhilash: Yeah, was thoroughly entertained :) According to roommate number 3, also Taiwanese, P didn't have any personal problems. None that have recently aggravated/popped up, anyway. I guess this one's a bit of a psycho.
Bobo: a) you have a chinese boss? b) he did a striptease?
No more lurid details, unfortunately. Does me telling P that she has no manners and that she's exceedingly ill brought up count? :P
well, he's Indian-born, but of chinese origin. he promised me the position of a dominator when the Red Army marches in and takes over the country.
yeah, he stripteased in front of a raod on a dare. heh.
this the same guy who took me dance bar hunting.
Right, that variety. Completely forgot they existed. I know one who studied to be an engineer but wound up joining the family business- dentistry.
Your boss sounds like fun, heh.
oh yes, he's a hoot and a half. alum of my coll too. and has complete contempt for it.
oh my. that girl has real problems. if you'd given her half a chance she might've bashed your brains in with the nearest hammer. now that she's been arrested, etc., you should get her drugged and perform intricate behavioural experiments on her...
Bobo: Contempt for your college? Why?
Eye: Yes, finally you see it my way. Oh, and I forgot to mention that she screamed at a couple of my friends for sitting on her couch, and ordered them off it. One does not expect to find such pettiness in a 28-year old. Sigh.
just. not towards the college per se. just the faculty and students. :)
Wow Nina!! You certainly seem to have been in the middle of a lot of action (albeit unpleasant) while on that loooooooong hiatus from blogging.
Neways, I'm still gonna say that a police case against that moron was severe.
Tho i can't help but wish that things were such in India. Just recently, there was this smart aleck who kept cutting me on the road while on my scooty. I stopped at a patrol car and asked them to help. They just quietly listened while i ranted and that guy accused(!!). Finally i got fed up and just went away.
Absolutely no reaction from the cops!
Sigh!
But then i'm not grumbling. This is the city which beat up a girl at Sathyam cinemas and Saravana Stores and got away with it.
Sigh!!
SV: You don't know what the situation here was like. So I'm sorry, but you can't be the judge of whether calling the police was too harsh or not.
While the legal system here is open and approachable, no policeman here is going to take action against someone who cut you on the road.
Certainly had a lot of action, yes. Heh. Oh and it's good to know there are people still reading this blog :)
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