street fight

a colleage and i were walking to a hubei restaurant that's on chengfu lu. on the way there, we noticed some yelling and people gathering in a circle. it soon became evident that there was a fight with several security guards and a man.

the man was trying to get away and a security guard raced after him and started beating him with a stick. over. and over, again. then other men surrounded him, making it more difficult to see.

another witness told us that there was a previous incident with the young man and that the security guard decided to attack him. the man had just stood there in shock. . .but as the security guard continued to hit him, the young man began to defend himself. and that's when the fight really broke out.

it was really terrible to see. i felt helpless and intuited that that young man must have felt even more helpless. eventually the fight broke up and i saw the young man walking away from the guards, leaning against his friend for support and holding his t-shirt to his head to keep the blood from dripping onto his face. he was so young. maybe 19 or 20.

i don't know if the other bystander's story was correct. maybe the young man had done something wrong previously, perhaps stolen something. or maybe the security guard had a personal grudge against the young man. . or was just on a power trip. i suppose i'll never know.