Shuttle Bus Witness

August 16th: tonight is our 37th wedding anniversary, but we needed the money so I was working a hotel shuttle job, 2nd shift, hauling guests to and from the hotel to Mall of America.

As I cleared Security and entered the drop-off area under the Mall, I noticed a small, slim, well- dressed, attractive black woman, about 30 years old, being handcuffed and hauled away by three Bloomington police officers.

There were three burly Mall security guards there.


She did not resist arrest, and they handled her very gently as they hauled her away.
I was stopped waiting for the light rail to leave the Mall so I watched this unfold for about 5 minutes.

Left behind was a little boy about 6 years old, screaming, shouting and running away and putting himself against the wall. He mother was being taken away in handcuffs, and his world had just collapsed. My guess is that she was a professional shoplifter, and used the children as a human shield (in a small way like Hamas fires rockets, hiding behind children), in an effort to confuse loss prevention personnel, that she was a young mother, shopping with her children.

In among the two children, were four or five garments that they retrieved as evidence. The 9 year old girl did not move, did not react, did not panic, and was very stoic. Again, my guess is that she has witnessed this routine at least a couple of times.

The burly security guards tried to calm the screeching boy and he was not having any of it. Finally, a heavyset blonde, Bloomington woman cop came and the kids went along after the mother into a corridor about 75 feet away. The boy calmed down a little and went along.

I suppose social services will get involved, or a sister or a grandmother will take the kids.

This was one of the saddest episodes that I have ever witnessed. That boy was shattered by the experience. For the rest of his life, 200 pound white police officers are going to be the villains that snatched away his Mom. What sort of future does he have to look forward to in the foster care program, and coming up against the criminal justice system?

Parents must recognize that everything they do entangles their children in their lousy choices. At the most simple ethical level, the parents need to work, obey the law, be clean, sober and careful to provide a protective envelope around vulnerable, impressionable children.

We are all naturally insane and basically evil. When parents make poor moral decisions, the odds of children escaping that trap to lead good, moral, lawful, happy lives is significantly reduced. Their chances of making it may be close to nil.

We adults must cease being selfish and irresponsible. We need to parent, make a living, take care of the family, while self-realizing as an individual. That is the decent matrix out of which the children must grow to self-actualizing adulthood. The parents must set the stage for the children to act as successful members of society.