I just read a news story of an Italian marathon runner who was lost in NYC for 2 days. Turns out he doesn't speak English and list his map and hotel key card during the marathon so he stayed in the park all night. Monday morning, when his group was supposed to leave, he went to Kennedy International Airport to wait on his friends “But they thought he looked homeless so they kicked him out.”
I can't picture how this happens. JFK is a huge international airport so surely the TSA agents there have experience with foreigners who are lost and don't speak English. Also, no one speaks Italian in NYC anymore?
There have been a lot of posts about recent brutality by police/school cops and those horrible news stories need to be read so more people react to them. In comparison, this example is ridiculously silly but to me, it's yet another example of how callouse our authority figures are - everywhere. Some might defend a cop in a high-stress situation making 'an honest mistake', although the details usually expose that line of reasoning", but I can't see any defense for not helping a guy who is still wearing his marathon running clothes. Did they even try to talk to him or did they just look aggressive and wave him away? Sure seemed easy for the subway cop to smile and get him to follow.
It's this kind of callousness that grows into such utter disregard for others that cops do the horrible crimes about which others have posted.