In the middle of a weekend night shift I was enjoying the company of empty streets while standing in my usual spot on the edge of the property. It was a quiet summer night and while the bar life was active in the area, they had closed a few hours prior and all the happy, lost, and separated drunks had found their way to somewhere. The only people left were the angry drunks.

Having just completed a patrol I was hot and needed to cool down. External Kevlar vests retain heat but at least they come apart on the sides and top easily unlike concealable vests. The usual way to do this is to open one side of the vest and flap it back and forth like a wing to get some air circulation, it's not a great look and I try to find a quiet empty place to do this. So, outside in the cool air I flapped away hoping to take off and fly somewhere that had a bed.

I was tired but in a good mood. I could smell burnt city with hot passing taxi cabs and commuter vehicles. The recent automatic irrigation that waters the flower beds had made the air humid and fragrant. I could feel the breeze which is constant between the buildings, it made a great place to cool off. The drone of high up building systems and traffic was intermittent with the odd rumble of a far-off subway or street car bell. Yelling could be heard in the distance.

I took turns between checking social media on my phone and catching up on writing down details in my notebook.

As I stared at my phone, I could hear the yelling getting closer. When I looked up, I could see the silhouette of a man and woman at the end of the block walking towards me on the sidewalk. Their movement was without direction or purpose and they moved with a sway that only inebriation could produce. They were arguing, about what I couldn't tell. The anonymity of arguing publicly while drunk in a large city is beautiful to me. I pretended not to notice or care as they got closer but secretly, I kind of wanted to know the juice.

I continued to look at my phone as they approached until the woman had decided that enough was enough and clung onto a newspaper box that was posted on the sidewalk.

As she bearhugged the box she screamed, "FUCK YOU ASSHOLE! I AM NOT GOING HOME WITH YOU!"

He came back with, "YOU FUCKING BITCH! WHY ARE YOU SUCH A FUCKING BITCH TONIGHT!?"

They were young and roughly the same age, I would guess 20-25.

She was quite pretty with long blond hair and large framed glasses on a very thin face. Her flat shoes didn't add height but she didn't need it as she was quite tall and thin. She was dressed up and had carefully selected her outfit but it would have only been appropriate in a music venue. Ripped jeans, a flowing shirt and a trench coat.

He was a bit bigger than me. He had short black hair and was wearing a navy peacoat with blue jeans and leather boots. I couldn't tell if he had an accent or if the alcohol was affecting his speech.

Together they seemed to create something messier than the sum of their parts.

"FUCK OFF!" she said, "I AM WALKING HOME ALONE!"

He put his arms around her and tore her off the newspaper box. She left the ground as she tried to cling to it but was overpowered and eventually gave up while impersonating a rag doll. Things seemed to escalate as he put her down on solid ground and she found her strength again. She pushed him away and began walking in the direction they had come from but he grabbed her belt from behind and yanked at it ripping off the belt loops in the process. He then put his arms around her and started pushing her in the opposite direction.

"LET ME GO!" she screamed, "ASSHOLE! ASSHOLE! YOU RIPPED MY JACKET!"

They were aware of my presence now as they were only 15 feet from me and while they were on city property, I thought this might be an appropriate time to step in.

"I'd let her go man." I said as I stood up straight and stopped leaning.

"WHAT!?" he asked while trying to comprehend the audacity of my objection to their public and now physical altercation.

"I said let her go." I repeated as I walked towards them.

He let her go and took about three steps towards me throwing a right fist at my head. It could have been my quick reflexes or his intoxication but I already had my hands Infront of me to block. It bounced off my right forearm and then landed on my chin and shoulder. I was already preparing a counter attack and locked onto his jacket with my left hand while throwing a right fist at his open jaw. I connected and could feel him shudder momentarily but it wasn't good enough and he grabbed onto my shirt above the vest with both hands and shook me while screaming nonsense.

It was about here that I realized I was in a bad spot. I was buzzing from that punch and while I had lots of other guards working with me that night, none of them knew where I was and I was unlikely to be seen on the edge of the property. I switched hands and grabbed onto his jacket collar with my right hand and pulled it up over his face while using my left hand to grab my radio mic on my left shoulder.

"10-33, I'm on the street, 10-33, hands on." I said calmly and clearly but admittedly hastily into the radio as this guy screamed like an animal. The woman stood there unsure of how to handle this turn of events.

I attempted to sweep his legs and get him off balance but I underestimated his size and rage. It was no use.

He finally let me go and we paced back and forth for a minute while I told him all the things I was going to charge him with when I got him in hand cuffs. The woman attempted to calm the situation by getting between us, telling me how much she loved him, and how he wasn't normally like this but it was too late, he had already taken my warning to heart and as my backup began to arrive, he ran. I followed.

He ran in front of a vehicle which slammed on its brakes and just hit his legs enough to make him stumble as he took off across and down the street. I hesitated thinking of the consequences but after just watching this guy rough up this girl and then getting punched in the face I decided to throw caution to the wind and ignore the growing shouts of protest from my team behind me. I had a small flame inside me that had been fed by the fuel of my team arriving and I decided that I was going to let it burn. I dreamt of tackling him into the concrete and feeding him a few quick punches before putting the cuffs on him and charging him with anything I could spell. Unfortunately for me he may have been on the national track team because try as I might he pulled away from me.

By the third block of the chase, I was out of gas. He turned up an unlit alleyway and out of sight. I waved goodbye to him as he disappeared into the darkness and turned around to find that I was alone. I started to realize why It was a bad idea to chase him. I was the fastest guy on the team and was now paying for it because I was alone and vulnerable. I took one last look into the alley to make sure he was gone and turned around to start the walk back.

"Coming up behind you Rex" Jeff yelled over the radio.

As I looked around in a full 360-degree circle I was confused by the message. A second later a taxi cab pulled over and Jeff, a co-worker got out of the back seat.

"Did you just take a fucking taxi?" I said while coughing from being out of breath and now attempting stifling laughter.

"Yup! I couldn't keep up and I wasn't letting you go alone bud." said Jeff, my new favorite co-worker.

We took a long walk back past a couple curious security guards from neighboring properties who had witnessed the chase and asked for a quick briefing. They laughed at my determination and I received many imaginary security points. Street Credit.

We arrived back on site to a confused woman wondering where her boyfriend had gone and asking if he was ok.

"Fuck your boyfriend, are you alright?" I asked.

She didn't answer and wandered off into the dark in search of her drunken lover.

The night went on with an air of scandal. There was no supervisor on that night and with the highest-ranking individuals on site being my dispatch team I was free of consequence for now. I knew I wasn't supposed to leave site and the people who responded to my 10-33 call all knew with certainty that I had. I expected the rumours to grow wings and fly away like my vest but as the night went on, I was visited by a number of concerned co-workers suggesting that I not put that part in my report and that they weren't interested in seeing me get in trouble. I was taken aback by the support shown by my co-workers and willingness to cover up the truth on my behalf.

My report officially said that he ran and that I chased him to the other side of the street but then called off the chase. I submitted my report and felt optimistic that I wouldn't hear anything more about it, but I was wrong.

Mike who was a supervisor at the time took me and Jeff aside the next shift to get the real story. He also wasn't interested in seeing us get in trouble but wanted us to know that we couldn't pull one over on him and warned us to never do it again. I probably wouldn't do it again.

What did I learn? - Domestic disputes are a train wreck, once you get involved the couple now has a common enemy. Alcohol operates on a bell curve rather than an exponential graph. Good co-workers cover for you, great co-workers take a taxi. Don't chase someone off property, the kinetic good does not outweigh the bad. You can't lie to Mike, he'll find out.