Strange encounter in Highland Park yesterday (propositioned on the street)

[DemoTex]

At 7:30 yesterday morning, I was walking my two dogs (Sirius and Nick-Nick). We headed for the Katy Trail (old Katy Railroad track). Turning down the last block of Armstrong (the south boundary between Highland Park and Dallas) that dead-ends at the trail, I saw a resident of that block, with his Schnauzer, at the end of Armstrong (near the trail). He was talking to a guy in a car that had just pulled up. When I was mid-block, the car pulled away from the Armstrong resident, an acquaintance through the dog-thing, and headed my way.

The older car, a beat-up Nissan or Mazda, pulled up to the curb next to me, with the driver's window down. He was a young Latino, so I assumed he was parking to go to work at a construction site nearby.

Then he said some thing to me - in English - that sounded like "Speak Spanish?" He's looking for directions, I thought. Happens several times a week when I walk the dogs. "No Spanish, sorry," I replied.

Then he started whispering. He would look at me, and then down toward his car seat. "What? What?" I asked. He continued to whisper and look down. I almost paniced, thinking he was looking at a gun.

Then I realized what was going on. He had his penis out and was masturbating. He was whispering "Blow job, blow job." Jesus Christ! He WAS looking at his gun (Remember "Full Metal Jacket": This is your weapon, this is your "gun." This is for killin', this is for fun.?). That's what I thought of - the basic training DI staple - as I got my dogs away from that foul man. He sped off.

My dog-friend and I met in front of his house. I said, "That was weird!" He said, "Did he ask you for a blow-job, too?"

A few minutes later I saw a Highland Park Kop in his Suburban or Yukon. He was amazed by the story. Early morning in one of the top-ten wealthy Zip codes in the country, known far-and-wide as a place dark-skinned people are watched like hawks by the police, this guy hits on two Anglo residents (walking their dogs ferchristsakes!) for sex acts that would be hard to do with the dogs to care for, should it have been a desirable liaison.

Maybe he thought he was in Reverchon Park. Who knows. Strange tale from strange times.

[LynzM]

1. Totally bizarre.

I've had some weird crap happen to me, but that beats most of it! Did the cops go looking for him?

[DemoTex]

7. Yes. For what my info was worth.

Like an idiot, I was in such a hurry to get away I did not note details (like the all-important tag number). The HP cop did say that if this guy tries this much more in HP he will get caught. The Dallas police are watching for him too. The police concern (and mine too) is that if he is so brazen and sex-driven to take the risk in HP, on a busy street, at 0730, he might be a candidate for crimes against women and - especially - children, too.

[radwriter0555]

2. aw ya shoulda started LAUGHING & pointing! NOTHING discourages

a perv MORE than HUMILIATION.

Your fear and anger stoked him on even more.

Men are nasty sometimes, aren't they?

[rene moon]

4. Men are nasty

Wow, that is just gross. That happened to me once but I was in 6th grade at the time. Freaked me out!!!

[comsymp]

24. Men are nasty?

In light of the "bitch wars" and similar flamefests which have taken place here (again) recently, don't you think that's a somewhat sexist comment?

-cs
(who's been called worse with no ill effect, but couldn't resist making the observation)

[radwriter0555]

25. It isn't women who patrol parks looking for small kids to perv out on,

it's men.

It's men who are rapists, child molestors, kidnappers, sexual predators, murderers, etc. In the overwhelming majority, men are the dominant purveyors of violence towards each other, women and children.

In two states, the number one cause of death among pregnant women is MURDER (by spouses, or SOs).

1 in four children is a molested.

We can honestly say that men are nasty.

We still love the ones that manage to do the right things, but those numbers seem to get smaller and smaller every day.

There is no hate with this observation, just facts and reality.

It'd be nice if that reality changed.

[comsymp]

26. Link, please?

It isn't women who patrol parks looking for small kids to perv out on,"

it's men.


It's men who are rapists, child molestors, kidnappers, sexual predators, murderers, etc.


Those are pretty strong assertions- please back up, with facts, your contention that women don't commit any of the acts you mention.

I was primarily playing around in my original post because, although I do believe that a general assertion like the one made is sexism, it didn't really bother me. (Let's use the old standby to determine whether it's an "ism"- replace men with blacks or jews, for example, and see how long the post would last) But as a man, I consider your response to be far more egregious.


I asked a question in another thread yesterday, which never rec'd an answer- maybe you can help:

How many exceptions does it take to rebut a generalization?
Names like Mary Kay Letourneau and Beth Friedman come immediately to mind, as do Susan Smith and Andrea Yates. And, of course, let's not forget Blanche Taylor Moore and Pamela Smart. Betcha Google would show dozens, if not hundreds, of other examples to rebut your claims.

My online time is extremely limited today but I'll try to check back in later to see what you've come up with.

[Skittles]

28. come on, comsymp

not all men are perverts, but most perverts are men.

[comsymp]

30. No argument here

And if that had been the gist of the above posts I wouldn't have said a word.

It wasn't.

The comments were that men are "nasty" (as I stated above, more amusing than offensive, in itself), and that men, not women, are murderers, rapists, pedophiles, etc- no qualifiers. Kinda hard to resist challenging such an asinine generalization. Additionally, from folks who deplore -isms when they land in their own backyards, the hypocrisy was just a bit too great to let slide. IIRC, the "perv" in this instance was Latino... are Latinos, therefore, nasty? I dare anybody here to post that and expect to get away with it.

The other points made re: domestic abuse, sexual abuse (of any nature), violent crime, etc., are all important to me and you will never find me excusing these acts- regardless of the perpetrator's or victim's demographics... and I believe that we (society) should have some serious dialogue about these and other topics. This *should* go without saying. But I don't accept these offensive acts as grounds for a blanket statement about ANY group of people.


Hey, I own it- hypocrisy and bias, whatever the target, piss me off.

[Skittles]

31. that is an easy sentiment

coming from someone who has been victimized. Try empathy instead of being confrontational, it will get you a lot farther. SHOW her that all men are not NASTY.

[comsymp]

32. Do you know whether or not I've been victimized?

And please show me what was nasty about challenging an obviously factually incorrect and biased statement. I'm not sure where you get the impression that anything I said to either of the above posters was confrontational, either- unless you're referring to the mere act of challenging the statement? I thought the tone was polite as opposed to harsh, made no disparaging comments about anyone, and CERTAINLY didn't slam anyone.

I'm stunned with your suggestion that I should be the one to try empathy- I'm not the one making the sweeping generalizations.

[Skittles]

33. you challenged her to supply links

when you knew exactly what she meant.

[comsymp]

34. And that's confrontational/nasty....

As far as knowing exactly what she meant, I can only assume that she meant exactly what she said.

Her handle suggests that she's a writer, right?

Writers make their living/spend their days choosing and arranging words for the best effect, as I understand it.

As a courtesy, I responded based on the assumption that she was not careless in her choice of words. But if that is the case then she was clearly in error regarding the facts- hence my challenge to back the statements up. I will acknowledge a small degree of sarcasm, as it's obvious that there are no facts or links to back up her assertion.

But frankly, I don't really see how the inaccurate assertions supported the initial statement that men (without qualifiers = all) are nasty to begin with.

[DemoTex]

9. I wish my two dogs could have gotten to "it"!

A nip by Nick-Nick's sharp pearly-whites whould have put the asshole out of business for a long, long time.

[PeteC]

3. "you'll shoot your eye out kid"

sorry. I couldn't resist.

[Fridays Child]

5. Sounds like a typical flasher. Even though he propositioned you...

...the rush for him is probably in getting away with exposing himself to people in a forbidden "zip code."

[Submariner]

6. Sounds like the Greyhound Bus stories we we're telling

at this link.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=1032717#1033094

[Fleshdancer]

8. Something odd occured in Austin today too (not as odd as your story)

I was driving downtown on Guadalupe and saw a black man wearing a t-shirt with the confederate flag on it. He also had on a cowboy hat. Oddest damn thing I've seen in a while. Talk about confusing a liberal. When in Rome I guess? :shrug:

So you were propositioned in Highland Park you say? That's pretty damn funny. I'm going to have to tell my Dallas friends about that one.

[DemoTex]

10. I used "propositioned" for lack of a better term.

It was certainly an un-provoked, sexual advance in public. Something women deal with much too often, sadly enough.

[DemoTex]

11. Propositioned less than 8 blocks from Cheney's old digs on Euclid!

Sorry. I meant to comment on your totally weird observation in Austin. What can I say? The cowboy hat is one thing, but the Dixie flag is another. Now, as a long-time volunteer in the great downtown Dallas soup kitchen (The Stewpot), I have seen stranger things vis-a-vis cast-a-way cloths on indigent recipients. A naked man doesn't notice or care about the message on the warm sweat shirt given to him by the shelter. Maybe that is the case with your guy in Austin.

[Fleshdancer]

13. This particular man was well kept and certainly didn't look homeless

the clothes were clean and unwrinkled. He was walking somewhere with a sense of purpose. I'm still baffled. For all I know, he could have been conducting some sort of social experiement, lost a bet, visiting TX and assumed everyone down here wears confederate flags on our shirts, or wanting to make a point to people like me that the cf represents Southern pride and that not all black people see it as a symbol for racism and slavery. Or maybe he has a thing for irony. Who knows.

So your odd encounter occured that close to Cheney's old place? Well I guess Highland Park had to replace one low life sleaze for another.

[argyl]

12. Back in my long hair days I couldn't drive through Highland Park

without the cops hassling me.Tore my car apart more than once in the hope of finding illegal substances.

[DemoTex]

15. Hi argyl! Long-time-no-see!

DU folks, argyl and I (along with LiberalTexan) participated in the Mockingbird Bridge anti-war, anti-Bu$h protest of 11/4/2002. We got closer to Bu$h, on Airline Drive as his motorcade pulled in to SMU, than any other protesters before or since. We even had anti-war people disrupt Bu$h's "speech" in the SMU coliseum.

[argyl]

19. Hi back at you DemoTex.That was a great experience.I may be in NYC

to give Smirk a big Texas howdy.There'll be a lot more people(hopefully two or so million) but our 11/4/2002 protest had so much spirit and heart.It's a memory I'll always cherish.
Hope you're dry in North Carolina;we're getting hammered by rain here in Denton.

[LoneStarLiberal]

21. Howdy from Denton

Howdy from Denton! The rain is nice, but not in that quantity.

Are we the only two from Denton here?

[argyl]

23. I don't think we're the sole Denton DUers ,just can't recall any other

user names offhand.I'd hope not;for North Texas this is a pretty laid back town.It's certainly an interesting mix,from musical prodigies to real cowboys(unlike a certain twerp we all know and despise).

[Skittles]

29. I live in Plano

and my boyfriend lives in Whitesboro.

[argyl]

35. My mother and sister both live in Plano.My sister's kids hate it,

they're not as well off(or materialistic)as most Plano kids.I drove my beautiful niece to Seattle last year to live.She loves it there but does miss the family.She's also noted that Seattle winters are pretty miserable compared to our "winters".Texas winters,something to add to things you like about Texas.
I've got my mom to checking out DU.This and Common Dreams are her favorite sites

[Skittles]

36. I am definitely not a "Plano woman"

I'm here for the work. As for the "winters" here, dear God, they are the only rest we have from 8 month summers.

[Deja Q]

14. Don't you wish you had your camera?

Okay, most unplanned moments revolve around accidents or regal wildlife, but you never can tell - the Natl. Inquieror could give you $500 so they can photoshop in a picture of Monica Lewinski, *, or anybody else they want to target for that week...

Man, that is a strange incident...! :wow:

[Ellen Forradalom]

16. A similar thing happened to me on my 30th birthday

I was waiting for a bus on the corner of Damen and Armitage for my morning class. A car stopped at the light. After a moment I realized that the driver was jacking off quite theatrically, like in a porn movie. We made eye contact and I threw my arms up and yelled, "Put it away, pal!" He threw the car in gear and sped around the corner. All this happened in the twinkling of an eye.

Jeez, happy birthday, indeed.

[aQuArius]

17. Time to move to Ft. Worth...

We have friendly cattle :evilgrin:

[Indiana_Dem]

18. Yeah that happened to one of my friends in 6th grade but

something even more embarassing happened to me when I lived in Los Angeles. I worked downtown in the garment district. I was 18 and just moved out there from Indiana to live with my dad who lived there. I was waiting to cross the street on Broadway one block from where I worked after getting off the bus to go to work. I was wearing a short dress, hose and probably 2-3 inch spike heels. I worked in one of the blouse manufacturing warehouses as an office worker. All of a sudden, I felt someone come up behind me, grab the bottom of my skirt and pull it all the way up!!!!! There were several people around but nobody came to my rescue. It was some homeless man who must've been drunk or on drugs. Talk about embarrassment! I grabbed myself away from him not expecting anything like this in the least and said "What the f*ck do you think you're doing!?!?!" and he backed off laughing. I was so mad that NOBODY even got involved.

After that, I learned how to be on guard and watch my back at all times. Hard lesson for a small town girl!! lol

[annonymous]

20. I had to deal with creeps like this a lot when I was younger.

For some reason, I seemed to attract the attention of flashers and other weirdos who loved to make obscene remarks to teenaged girls. I lived in a tourist town, so I have a feeling they felt they could get away with it because they felt nobody would know them there. I got real good at yelling obscenities back at them and fleeing.

[Elidor]

22. Dallas is a wierd fucking town

I was propositioned at the Greyhound station downtown. Shocking, I know. My sister was coming in from Atlanta and her bus was late, so I went outside and had a cig. I'm holding up the wall, I was about 18, ratty clothes, long hair and attitude, and in less than 3 minutes some nasty old fart asked me to come back to his place and earn some cash. I waited in the terminal after that. I had an identity crisis along the lines of: "Do I really look like a male prostitute?" I started dressing better after that.

Then I placed an ad in the Morning News, wanting to sell my Les Paul, and received a phone call from a very husky-sounding "woman" who claimed to teach ballroom dancing and suddenly asked if I had a big cock.

Everywhere I went in Dallas, I seemed to meet the wierdest, most whacked-out people. I could write a book. But I could write an even bigger book about Atlanta, that wretched shithole I hope to never see again.

[Skittles]

27. A guy did that to me on 6th Street in Austin

he had whipped it out and asked me HEY BABE WHAT'S THIS? I told him it looked like a dick, only smaller. :o

[davsand]

37. I got flashed at Burger King one night.

I was in the drive thru waiting to order and I hear some guy yelling at me. I looked over just to see some guy leaned up against a bike with his wang out and hand a working.

He pulled his hand away and yells, "What do you think of this? Want some?" All the while he's pointing at his semi erect boy parts...

I yelled back: "No thanks, I came for a Whopper."


Laura

[HEyHEY]

38. Ey, wanna make 14 dollars the hard way?