Two Men Harassing A Crying Young Woman

A few minutes ago I witnessed something very strange. I was walking out of the McDonalds on 44th street in Wyoming, MI near US 131. I took the front door instead of the side for some reason, and happened to walk past an outdoor table with three people.

One was a young woman, Hispanic, crying. The other two were tall white men, who were speaking angrily to her. The only words I heard as I walked past were “get an attorney” from one of the men. Something seemed very wrong. I walked back into the McDonalds and stopped by the door to watch, to see if I could figure out what was going on. One of the cashiers told me they had been indoors and just moved outside, and they seemed to be interrogating her; they were acting like cops.

As I watched, the men left, one at a time, and I came out to see if the woman needed help; a woman in a van who’d been going through the drive-through had already stopped to ask if she needed help and see what was going on. Soon another woman in another van stopped too.

The young woman said that the men had said they were Homeland Security agents but hadn’t shown her any badges. They’d grilled her about illegal drugs, but she had no idea what they were talking about. Apparently they had called her at home and told her to meet them there. I asked if there were any immigration issues, was there any reason she wouldn’t want to call the police and she said no, she was born in Los Angeles, and the woman who’d stopped to help explained that she’d already offered the woman a ride home (she’d walked; she lived a few blocks away) so she could be with her family and call the police. One of the men had given her a business card that said, if I remember correctly, Homeland Security, Detroit office, with “Detroit” crossed off and “G.R.” written in in marker, and a phone number crossed off and a new one written on the back in marker.

At the suggestion of the woman in the van I ran and got a cellphone photo of the car of the guy who had started driving off in a gold SUV, who was still waiting to turn onto 44th street — the other had driven away in a small beat-up sports car (again, if I remember correctly).

I gave them my phone number in case they needed me and the first woman who’d stopped drove the young woman home.

I don’t know what the hell is going on, but if these guys were really Feds (I assume they were, because the detail of the crossed out business card isn’t something somebody would fake if they were going to fake things) I just got a little taste of the Federal Police State here in GR.

I’m guessing these guys knew they were doing something they shouldn’t be, because they scattered when that woman in the van stopped to ask the woman if she needed help.

I want to call the cops myself or call the newspaper and tell them what’s going on, but I don’t have any details. I didn’t get anybody’s name or number myself, I just gave them mine.

I’m proud of my community that by the time I got there to offer help two other people had already arrived.

But I sure don’t like the way the country is going.

That’s been true for some time but today I got a little taste of it in real life instead of the news.

EDIT: Final disclaimer: I don’t know what was going on there.  I don’t have all the facts.  I just got a very, very bad impression of what was going on from what I saw.

27 thoughts on “Two Men Harassing A Crying Young Woman”

  1. Did you write down the names & numbers? Posting them might help people chase this down.

    Alternatively, sending them to a newspaper editor or reporter might get something too…. if you didn’t want to risk wrath by publicly posting them.

  2. I got virtually no information, which I later regretted.

    The woman involved was going to call the police, and she had the business card and a license number from the SUV and my phone number in case anyone needed to talk to me. She was in the care of the woman in the van, who seemed like she was determined to provide moral support and help her get to the bottom of it.

  3. Good job catching the van on camera! You would hope some investigative reporter would dig into this…

  4. Grand Rapids is terrible. It has got to be the right-wing fanatic capital of the north and this story doesn’t surprise me at all.
    Seriously, the best advice for anyone who isn’t white, rich, christian AND republican is just to stay out of Grand Rapids and the area surrounding it. There’s better places to go, I don’t know why anyone would actually choose to live there.

  5. You know, the U.S. is fast becoming the enemy we feared when the world went to war in the 40’s. For a country that’s armed to the teeth, you sure put up with a lot of shit from your leaders.

  6. Do you own a gun? It might be time you started considering getting one if not.

  7. A women should NEVER agree to meet suspicious “law enforcement” anywhere like that, or go with any non-uniformed law enforcement anywhere. They could be fakes. That’s exactly how Ted Bundy operated. Tell them you don’t believe they are real law enforcement, and call the police.

    That said, I’d bet they were homeland “security.” Curiously, the word “homeland” was chosen and used by the Nazis. The US is indeed degenerating into a police-state/national-security state.

  8. OOh. America is Fascist becoming a Police State. Oh, how observant of you. You must be geniuses.

    AND WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT??

    Blog??

    Eat a big, greasy Big Mac while watching the Brainwash Box?

    Yes. You’ll sit there and do NOTHING because that is what most Americans ARE : NOTHING.

  9. Well, lady, it seem you stuck you nose where it did not belong and YOU created a mess and a lot-to-do-about-nothing. You should not have been at McDonalds in the first place, and that is why you are obese.

  10. Sounds like something from TV.

    Bad boy, bad boy, what you gonna do when they come for you?

    COPS, following the men and women of Law Harrassment.

    Tomorrow you’ll forget about the whole incident as you walk the streets of Berlin and life looks normal.

    And you don’t even have a clue about the concentration camps.

  11. blogging about it is better that what most people would do, turning a blind eye.

  12. They could have been fake “cops” and picked her on the off chance she was illegal and they could get her to do something against her will. At least the good part of the story is someone was looking out for a stranger that could have been in danger.

  13. to mr “fascistUSA”:

    You are full of vicious criticism, but blogging is really about the best thing that we can do about it.

    What do you expect us to do — hold a protest? Fine, the corporate-media cameras won’t cover it.

    Be violent? This is not a violent country, and violence does not do anything but create more violence. It’s like lighting a fire to try to improve a forest.

    If you have a constructive idea, post it. If you don’t, then you are just another anonymous mean jerk. We have plenty of those in our country already, and they are not improving things one bit.

    Blogging helps raise consciousness, and what would really help the USA improve is raising the consciousness.

  14. Blog schmog. The person who did something that *mattered* is the woman in the van who gave the girl a ride home where she could be with family and call the cops.

  15. Hmmn. I know someone who works for the DHS. He’s recently relocated to Grand Rapids from Detroit.

    That’s not his SUV though. And anyway, he’s involved in tracking down child pornographers.

  16. I’m all for tracking down child pornographers, but that doesn’t sound like Homeland Security to me. That should be the FBI’s job.

  17. “What do you expect us to do — hold a protest? Fine, the corporate-media cameras won’t cover it.”

    Who cares if the media covers it they only have as much power as you let them have.

  18. to Joe #4: Joe, alternatively you could become a Republican and a Christian, it would only take a few minutes of your time, perhaps you are already white and as for rich, well, good luck with that.

  19. In this particular case, the guy is involved in tracking down illegal immigrants who are also criminals. Thanks to the immigration issue, I guess it becomes DHS’s job in some way.

  20. Well done Ed!!!

    While you are being humble and giving more credit to the lady in the van, I’m sure your showing your concern helped the distressed lady along with the third person who also offered help.

    Check this article out

    “http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=ai1Okpso9WiI&refer=home”

  21. Ed – good work – and your posting about it reminds the rest of us what truly good citizens are like. I find it telling that of the (three?) people who stopped to help her, only one was male.

    We need to be the change. I look forward to hearing updates if you get called.

  22. They probably called her out of the house so they could have someone else go back to her house and toss it, bug it, etc.

    This stuff is becoming way to prevalent in this country.

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