Which story is better?
One image I can’t get out of my mind. It’s from a case I handled when I was still new to homicide.
The guy had brutally rapped and killed a several older women. He was very smug about it when I brought him in here to be questioned. NO remorse at all.
He would find out the addresses of vulnerable old women and then attack them in their homes.
I was questioning him trying to get a statement when he turned to me and said, “Where does your grandmother live?”
I lost it.
There he was challenging me with this threatening remark. And I had to do something, so I jumped on the guy. I just lost it.
It took four other detectives to pull me off the guy. Now I can can still see his face crystal clear anytime I close my eyes.
“I did this joke, saying, ‘If I can’t beat the guy up, I’d sue the bastard.’”
From the audience came a yell. “Hey, Jew-boy!”
In a beat the comic replied, “Listen, pal. I wouldn’t need my lawyer for you, OK? Knock it off.”
Again came the taunt, “Jew-boy!”
It was a hot moment as the comic turned to him, “You know, look at the size of you, you big Aryan man you. I’ll be honest with you. You’d probably kick the shit out of me. There’s really nothing I could do. And, yet, I feel bad for you, because I know that’s not somethng you learned in college, how to hate Jews. So it must be something you learned at home around the dinner table. Your father, working for a rich Jewish man, saying ‘Jew, Jew, Jew, Jew-boy’. Yeah, you’d kick the shit out of me.”
As the comic scanned the audience his eyes settled on a table of black students.
“Hey you black dudes out there! If he hates Jews, you know what he thinks about you guys. Would you take that shit? ” With their attention riveted on him, he asked, “Could you do me a favor? Will you escort this asshole out of here?”
“You got it, brother!” came the reply.
The black students stood up as a group of ten and turned to the taunter. One of them said, “Get your motherfucking ass out!”
“I said, ‘Thank you.’ They walked this guy right out the door. I called to him as he left, ‘Take it easy.’”