I saw something at the airport yesterday that continues to bother me, even though it shouldn't.
Actually, I saw a snapshot of the incident.
No, I saw a snapshot of the aftermath of the incident.
I wish I could fill in the rest of it. It would put my mind at ease.
I was on my way home from a business trip. It was about 8 p.m. local time, and I was dressed in a suit and tie.
I got off the airplane and was making my way up the concourse towards the train. On the far end of the food court, I noticed a policeman standing there, looking large and menacing and in control, his gaze focused intently on someone in front of him
As I got closer, I saw that the "someone" was sitting on a bench less than 3 feet away from the officer.
As I walked past them, I couldn't keep from staring. The "someone" was a man in his 30s or 40s, slight of build, with well-groomed, dark hair. He was wearing a suit and tie, just like me, so I concluded that he was also traveling on business. He was also on the concourse, which meant that he had a ticket to fly somewhere — although he could have been returning from somewhere, like me.
I hazarded a closer look. He was sitting crookedly and rather uncomfortably on a bench, and his hands were behind him, so I concluded that he was wearing handcuffs. He was looking at the floor some distance away, and he looked like he was trying really hard not to cry, as if he were very unhappy to be there.
I had places to be, so I kept walking. I tried not to slow down. A few paces beyond that sad tableau, I passed a second policeman, holding the arrestee's ID and saying into his radio "... and the birthdate is oh five, oh six, ..."
It really was none of my business, but it's hard not to watch a train wreck. Part of my brain kept chewing on what I had seen. In no particular order, these are the thoughts that passed through my brain:
He's going to miss his flight. He's going to spend the night in jail. Somebody's going to have to fly out here, from somewhere else, to bail him out.
What did he do? It must have been pretty bad, and/or it must have unfolded over time, because policemen don't magically appear in a food court on an airport concourse. Maybe one of the food court employees called the police while it was happening.
Had the guy been drunk? Abusive? Irrational? Is that why they called the police on him? He was wearing a suit, so he wasn't just some rowdy tourist. He was a businessman, traveling on business.
Or was he disruptive on an airplane, and the flight crew called ahead, so he was arrested when he disembarked? I doubt this, because I would expect that arrest to happen near the boarding gate, not in the food court.
Oh, that sad look on his face. It breaks my heart. Whatever happened, his business trip sure didn't end the way he expected it to.
I wonder what will happen when he gets home? And I wonder what other pieces of his life will fall apart, as a result of this incident?
