Fight

I watched a street fight.

I'd just left college when I stopped at the traffic lights in Twickenham. From the traffic queue I saw a small crowd gathered round the pavement. And then a lot of shouting. The crowd began to move away and revealled two bodies wrestling on the ground, turning off the pavement into the gutter.But there seemed to be four men involved. Two white men, late twenties early thirtes and two black youths in their late teens.

Then they were standing up.

The two older men seemed to be trying to walk away but they were being followed by the younger guys. The older men did not run but seemed to be walking in circles over the street to a parked van on the pavement with its door open. They walked round and round. One of the youths, tall quite broad kept on wanting to grab one of the men.

Then a man intervened tried to come between the two and facing the youth shouted at him to stop. "Stop right now" and "let it go." He repeated this again and again. But he could not let it go.

Eventually the older men got into the parked van for shelter I think but as they tried to close the door the other teenager raised his bunch of keys that were around his neck and swung the keys down hard against the side van window. It shattered. The men got out and called the police.

The teenagers started walking away.

And then the police arrived - maybe within two minutes. And the teenagers were caught and put inside a police van.

I don't know how it started. I don't know who started it. The teenagers were the aggressors throughout. And yet why didn't the older men just run or get away. They could have done that at any time. What shocked me was the cold, expressionless - almost robotic behaviour of the younger pair. There was nothing said, just cold mechanical violence.

I didn't do much. I called out from the car for them to stop. I got out but felt rather helpless really. I gave my name to the police in case they wanted a witness statement.