Streetfighters

Police is here now, and the screams are just quieting down. Just a minute ago two women were banging each other’s heads against the glass doors of the Chase Bank branch across Broadway. Now there is some quiet time. The cops slowly took the fight apart. I missed a major portion of the event. When I came up to the window one of the women, the one who was closer to a group of men in a black Jeep, put her bag on the pavement and opened her coat to somehow show something to the other woman, who was being held back by somebody about 100 years away. It took seconds for her to break free and make the dash and in a moment they were tearing at each other’s hair. Then one of them had the idea to use the building as her third fist and so she slammed the body of her opponent against the concrete wall. This also gave her a short time advantage the other woman briefly stopped throwing punches. Once they hit the Chase entrance, the roles reversed. The one who just had been thrown against the building went low and threw the most vicious punches onto the lower belly of the other. One of the men standing near by wanted to separate the women but he did not even manage to get close. Somebody in a large jacket, or maybe just a large man grabbed him from the back and punched him right into his face.
The scene is quiet now. All actors gone. Police just left and there is not the sest sign of violence in front of the “24 Hour Banking” sign on 96th and Broadway. From here all looks peaceful.
Sometimes there is blood on the sidewalk. Little drops in strangely public places. One could wonder how anything could happen in the middle of a highly populated street.
The average time for Police to arrive at a scene of violence in New York is somewhere under 10 minutes. I have not seen fights last longer than maybe 2 minutes on the corner here. It is a busy intersection. And there is a dunkin’ donuts.