violence leads to what?

What is the point of violence against others? Our friend recently got thrown against a fire hydrant by some random angry person who apparently was harassing anyone that passed by.  Not sure what he was so mad about but it looks like he decided to take it out on strangers.  When my hubby was first notified by the hospital, early Friday morning, no one knew what happened.  There was no police report, no ambulance report, just a call that our friend was found on the street, dazed and confused and bleeding profusely and an ambulance had brought him to the hospital.  Since we found out that he had his wallet and phone, we assumed he was not mugged..Was it maybe a hate crime like so many crazy violent acts that have been going on with the gay population in Manhattan?  Was it gang related?  Did he get in a fight?  Was it a mugging gone wrong?  Was it some freak accident?  By crazy dumb luck, we found out just today that the person that called for the ambulance actually lives in the same building as our friend who got assaulted and saw the whole thing happen.  Small world?  Yes it really does seem like it is.  But really, what is the point of random violence against others?  What satisfaction does one get from it?  Do they get some inane pleasure from giving someone pain?  Do they just have a screw loose so they have no control?  Or do they have no feelings at all of guilt or remorse for the things they do?

The other day my friend posted on Facebook that she was waiting on line for coffee and the person/stranger in front of her mentioned that there were a lot of kids there.  Uh-huh...Then she went on to say that these parents must be optimistic because the world is so crazy right now.  An odd thing to say to a stranger, especially a stranger who you don't know might actually have kids themselves.  I mean but the world is crazy right now - it's been crazy for quite some time - but I'm kind of thinking humanity in general has always been pretty violent.  Are we violent more so now then we were in the past?  Or is it that technology allows more reporting of these types of incidents?  Are we all just losing our minds?  Another thing someone mentioned is that we've had a heat wave for several days and heat makes people act crazy or all the crazy people seem to be out and about.  I feel like there are more violent incidents when it's hot than not since more people in general are out and about when the weather warms up.  More crowds + heat = uncomfortable = anger = violence?  This always brings me to the question of whether humans are innately good or are we all evil and just repressing our true selves?  Maybe it is too optimistic, but I believe when you get down to it, most people are nice and have good hearts.  I do say MOST though, not ALL. 

Anyway, the person that called the ambulance said he had called the police about 4x before an EMS ambulance finally came.  The police blew him off and said that he was probably drunk - "he" being our friend who got beat up?  or "he" that assaulted my friend and slammed his head against a hydrant?  Not sure which, but the cops didn't think it was worth coming to the scene or filing a report.  That is so lame.  How many bouts of abuse and violence happen in NYC daily that aren't being reported or fully investigated?  When is it worth their time?  It's very upsetting but at least we know what happened and we no longer have to hypothesize about what happened. 

Our friend left the event around midnight, was admitted to the hospital Friday around 1:45AM, he started hemorrhaging near his brain and had to immediately have surgery.  His skull also got fractured.  There were 4 of us who got to the hospital as he was getting out of surgery around 11am.  We were scared - I mean it doesn't sound good when you hear "assaulted" and "needed surgery" in one sentence.  All I kept thinking was, "what the fuck happened?"  Geez.  He was with us that evening and had gone home just half an hour earlier than us and damn it, why the fuck did he not make it home?  How could this have happened?  It's so crazy because we had such a fun evening.  My parents were babysitting so we had the night off.  We three went to a charity event together and I got my drink and dance on which I haven't done in soooo long.  We were having fun and feeling happy and then in a sudden twist our morning got turned upside down.  The good news is his recovery has been amazing so far, but I think he may have many more days in the hospital.  We won't know the extent of the brain damage, if any, until he has healed completely and starts rehabilitation but all signs are looking good.  He has a lot of friends visiting and sending positive vibes which is an important key to the recovery process, so if he keeps being surrounded by all these people that love and care for him, I think he will be good to go in no time.  It is a relief that his recovery has been amazing, but there is still a hint of worry, until he is officially moved out of ICU and onto the rehab floor. 

Being at the hospital 3 days in a row just reinstates how much I hate hospitals.  The nurses, doctors, physical therapist, social worker, etc have all been great and really nice, but just the institution and how scary it can be or the reasons why you typically have to go there make me quite squirmish.  I wanted to take the baby to see our friend.  I think he would be happy to see the pudge pudge and I don't think it would have been morbid.  And in ICU, they actually just recently removed age restrictions so that anyone can come visit 24 hours a day.  But the nurse told me they are against bringing a child to ICU because why expose your child to so many germs?  Our friend is in Neuro ICU.  The unit next door is apparently ICU for highly contagious diseases.   So yeah, they are right. Why risk getting a child sick?  So today, hubby and I took turns going upstairs to visit ICU while the other stayed downstairs and watched the baby.  The baby easily got bored and wanted to run around the ground floor of the hospital like the Tasmanian Devil.  So not sure if this plan will work for future visits.  It looks like I might not get to visit so much anymore until maybe our friend moves to a different floor. Not to say I'm any less concerned for his well being, but he's my hubby's best friend and I know he needs to be there for him more than me.