Yup. I am making you people read my homework again.

First, 150 words on this website

Please don’t judge, I can’t say I liked the site at all. Spending twenty minutes there was a trial. The whole experience was like dragging fingernails across the chalkboard of my nervous system. The art style, the writing style, the sudden sounds or speech, all of it irritated me for some reason. And I admit, the underage lesbianism makes me uncomfortable, even though my own gay history didn’t exactly start on my 18th birthday. I enjoyed some of the passages – for the record, they were called Lik-M-Aid, not Lick-A-Maid, although we call called them Lick-A-Maid so I can understand the confusion – and I really think I could have enjoyed this work more if it had been simpler and more pleasant instead of trying so hard to be avant-garde. Maybe that makes me a dull Philistine, I don’t know. But as a highly sensitive artistic type, I prefer environments that are more welcoming. I like the storytelling and the form. In fact I have pondered doing something similar myself in order to tell a story larger than what can fit in the human mind at any one point, but I can’t put up with the style. Sorry.

And now for my 750-ish words of fractured fiction.

Between Ten Eyes

P1 : Look, I don’t much care for the police, but that homeless dude totally jumped the cop. I saw the whole thing. I was right across from the homeless dude on the Skytrain, just chillin’, and this Skycop walks up to the guy and says something to him about taking him home, and the guy freaks out and leaps up like someone put a million volts through him and headbutts the cop. So the cop’s bleeding out a busted nose and trying to tase the guy. By then, people are screaming and this fat chick has her cell phone out and the next thing I know, the homeless guy is down on the floor twitching and foaming at the mouth. Then some huge gorilla of a guy is on the homeless guy’s chest, and then the homeless guy stops moving. Listen, is he going to be okay?

P2 : Don’t believe the media , I saw the whole thing, and the cop was the one who freaked out on the homeless guy. I was sitting right next to the homeless guy – I’m the guy in the Canucks jacket in the video – and that homeless guy wasn’t doing anything wrong. He was just siting there talking to this huge dude when some Skycop comes along and starts poking the homeless guy with his night stick and talking to him like he’s an idiot. I could tell the homeless guy was terrified of the cop and that’s why he wasn’t answering the cop’s questions. He was too freaked out. Next thing I know, the cop is tasing the guy over and over, and there’s blood everywhere, and people are screaming like the do in the movies. I’m telling you, the guy didn’t do anything wrong. That cop should be in jail.

P3 : I’m glad someone is finally asking me my opinion, because not only am I the person who took the now infamous cell phone video, I’m a professional social worker who deals with the homeless on a daily basis, and while Mister Driscoll is not one of my clients, I am well aware of how vulnerable they can be to abuse by the police. That’s why I was recording the scene. I was protecting Mr. Driscoll’s rights. That’s why I posted it to YouTube as well. They can confiscate your cell phone but they can’t confiscate the Internet. Although if I had known what was going to happen, I might have had second thoughts. What’s happened to Mister Driscoll is a nightmare and an outrage and people should be ashamed of themselves for saying what they have been saying about him. For God’s sake, Leonard Driscoll is a human being!

P4 : I think I can clarify a few matters, as I am Leonard Driscoll’s personal physician and therapist as well as being the person the Internet has dubbed “King Kong”. I tried to tell the policeman not to tase Leonard as his condition makes him vulnerable to seizures, but the policeman was clearly terrified of Leonard and not listening to me. Luckily, I always keep Leonard’s anti-convulsive medicine with me, and I was able to restrain Leonard enough to slip it under his tongue. Physically, Leonard will make a full recovery, The damage to his fragile psychological state will take much longer to repair. Knowing Leonard, I believe he reacted as he did because he thought the cop was going to take him “back home”, and for Leonard, home was never a safe or happy place. He never meant to hurt that policeman. He was only trying to get away.

P5 : Are you sure you’re from the government? It’s just that I’ve had a very hard day, and the doctors say I shouldn’t get too excited right now. But I guess someone has to tell the real story, right? Right. Right. It’s all kind of jumbled up right now, but I remember the blood… so much blood. Blood everywhere. And the smell of ozone from the taser. And the confusion. And people screaming, screaming screaming… the screaming was worse than the blood. (pause) I’m sorry, I’m sorry. No, I’m okay, I can keep going. I know what people are saying about me, and it’s not true. Not true. Not true at all. I’m not some violent, out of control lunatic. I’m a human being, just like you. The only difference between you and me is that you work in a big dance office, and I decided to become a cop.

Well, that’s it for tonight’s homework, due tomorrow. I hope you all enjoyed it. It is going to be weird sharing this stuff with a group of fellow students of various degrees of perspicacity to “workshop” it, but WTF. I need to learn to be more open and trusting. Tear down the wall, and all that.

I will talk to you nice people again tomorrow.