Attempted Strangling on Capp

Capp St. just continues to amaze.  The other night, around 1:30am, there was quite a commotion on the 700 block of Capp.  Looking outside my window, I notice that a number of my neighbors have their heads sticking out their windows staring down the block.  Suddenly I spot a vehicle that is parked perpendicular the flow of traffic with its high beams on two males punching each other.  By the time I stuck my head out my window, one of the guys has his hands around the other and is attempting to choke him.  Fairly disturbingly, the chokee goes between groaning and yelling “get your hands off my neck!”

Finally the guy being choked gets his foot on the other guy’s stomach, pushes him off, and they resume yelling and fighting standing up.  After a couple of minutes of punching, kicking, choking and pushing, I find my camera and start filming (tragically the film was too dark and could not be brightened, but you can still hear the audio).  The car that was parked, highlighting the show for all the on-lookers, apparently became bored and drove off.  For another two minutes, they proceeded to fight and the guy who was formerly being choked has had hit shirt ripped off.

After being knocked to the ground once again and enduring another round of choking, the chokee escaped, running down Capp St. wearing nothing but a pair of jeans.

Amazingly, the other guy decided not to flee the scene!  Instead, he stood around playing with his cell phone for another minute until a number of cops showed up, put a spotlight on him, cornered him, began questioning him and searching the area for weapons.  Inevitably they let him go.

In spite of all the onlookers, no one seemed very willing to jump in (myself included).  Talking with a few neighbors revealed a common fear: getting stabbed for helping out.

14 Responses to “Attempted Strangling on Capp”

  1. zinzin says:

    meth clouds one’s judgment. and crack.

    is that presumptuous?

  2. ben says:

    Yeah, good old-fashioned alcohol can do that, too.

  3. meave says:

    Why exactly did you record this, and why are you posting it here? There are plenty of violent videos already online, and they’re gross enough.

    • The same reason we post about muggings, shootings, drive-bys, beatdowns, thefts, and other domestic disputes: to make you angry.

    • piratesnack says:

      If you saw a crime being committed and had a camera ready, you wouldn’t record it? Seriously? Don’t you think that that might be helpful in catching the assailant?

  4. void says:

    the whole world is turning into Capp Street

  5. Stucco-sux says:

    SFPD can be really tone deaf when it comes to neighbors being vigilant. They have no real mechanism for on the scene witnesses. You have to be willing to get into the mix, or the guy gets off. Its kinda dopey. My personal favorite tale E*V*E*R:

    We have a guy who lives in his van nearby, from Mexico, and once in a blue moon he gets really really drunk and starts wailing about love lost and banging his head against telephone poles. One time, the police showed up and circled him (two cars, four cops) at 18th & Harrison and tried to talk him down. We are all milling around for a sec, watching the drama, when lo and behold a 68 Chevy lowrider chock full of these ginormous tattooed gang members comes racing toward us on Harrison. They espy the police activity and faster than you can say “Kamala Harris” they bump the car onto the sidewalk and proceed at the same speed, lights now off, right up to the intersection where the cops are. The back door opens and out tumbles a really pissed off, high as a kite hooker. I turn to one of the four cops standing there and said “Did you see that?” (Meanwhile the chevy has backed up and is turning around, and the hooker is screaming in spanish at the chevy). The cop didn’t even look at me and said: “That’s not what we’re here responding to.” True story.

  6. olu says:

    Fear of getting stabbed shouldn’t be the primary reason to not intervene. How about the fact that when assholes collide, there will often be violence, and its not your (anyone’s) job to stop it.

    Now if it seems like one person was being savaged by another, or the parties are grossly disparate in their relative strength levels, then you could make a case for intervening, but I don’t think that should be the default. Sometimes the best thing to do is just bear witness and report.

  7. loosecharm says:

    So possible death is about to occur in front of you… and the FIRST action you take is to grab the… camera. And not the phone to call 911.

    Hmmm…

  8. Jack says:

    It’s because the liberal response is not to help the person in need but to pat himself on the back for exposing “the man”. 911? Pshaw! Get a good beatin’ on tape? ‘Bama points.