It was kind of strange because I've seen all sorts of behavior before, but I really haven't seen anything like what I saw tonight.
My kid is enjoying Shake Shack now, and they have a BOGO offer on a ShackBurger until tomorrow. Our closest location is in Oakland in the rapidly gentrifying Uptown area, but it's still Oakland and can be rough around the edges.
There's this guy who seems to be homeless and in a wheelchair looking for handouts right in front of the Shake Shack entrance on the sidewalk. Kind of scruffy with a white beard. As people are going in he's asking for people to bring him something to eat. As people are exiting the door he's asking where the food is that he asked for. Most are ignoring him as is typical. Most panhandlers are used to it.
We're waiting a while since they're really busy with all sorts of orders - especially from food delivery services, so it's taking a while. We're enjoying it and it's a fun, lively atmosphere. I think some LGBT pride event finished as there seemed to be a few drag queens grabbing dinner and everyone is getting along fabulously. We're enjoying our meal but it's time to go home.
As we exit, he's asking various people exiting "Where's my cheeseburger?" But then he focuses on one guy who looks to be of east Asian ancestry and then asks him. When he walks away, he yells at him "Go back to China!" I saw the guy he confronted inside and I'll just say I don't think he was born in China and most definitely was not someone who didn't belong there. But I don't really care how hungry this homeless guy is, and I yell at him "What the *$*# is your problem?" I'm not usually like that in public, but made an exception for this lowlife. He's about to confront me then but I can just walk away faster than he can approach me in his chair. I'm not usually that confrontational, but this idiot just drove me into responding.
It did occur to me that maybe he has a weapon, perhaps just a knife. But the thing is that that I've been to Oakland many times and have never, ever seen anything like this. People tend to mind their own business, or otherwise just get along regardless of background. I wasn't sure if this guy could be removed from the street by police for disturbing the peace or something. Not that Oakland Police has the time for it, but I've been in a neighboring city where I've seen police remove panhandlers who were blocking the street and/or being obnoxious to people who wouldn't give money. Over the years I've seen regular panhandlers who were exceedingly polite and would never yell at anyone who failed to to give a handout.
Going to go crawl back under the rock I've been living under now, though, since I don't keep up with local LA news. 
Of course not, not at all. But it IS the reality that those incidents are rare enough that they’re completely shocking and nothing that would cause the rest of us to start looking over our shoulders. Even when that perpetrator was at large, he was a one-man threat in a vast nation of 37 million. I doubt anybody felt like the next stranger they encountered had the potential to stab them to death (and for the record, he was not a stranger to his victims). It simply is not ingrained in our psyches that everyone we meet is potentially armed and dangerous - it just isn't that way.
