Shaken

Last night I met a friend for dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Coon Rapids. We met, we ordered, we ate, we were still talking when the man seated behind me reached across the table and smacked a woman in the  face. His sudden action jerked my booth seat. I heard the sound of fist meeting cheek and was horrified. Right away I thought I had to get out of here. This was not a safe place. All the diners in the room looked up in alarm. I heard a woman behind me say, "That was your fault. You provoked him. You should have never showed him that picture." The man wearing jeans and a white sleeveless tank top stood up and walked out of the restaurant. The victim quietly asked someone to call the police. The wait staff called the police. My friend and I stood up and walked to the cashier at the front door.  None of the restaurant staff heard or saw the commotion. I was shaking. We paid the bill and stood outside to talk. The man was no where to be seen. I was still standing  there and shaking when a city police officer with a nice smile and a blonde pony tail walked by. She asked, "Should I shake you up?" I said no thank you, I was already shaken up. She was kidding. She went into the restaurant while my friend took me for a walk to calm down. We walked six blocks and came back to the restaurant. We got in our cars to leave and had backed out of the parking spaces when the police officer returned to get our statements. Since my back was to the assault I had little to offer. My friend, however, gave a statement that corroborated the victim's statement. That man assaulted a woman. That man ruined my dinner and the dinner of everyone in that room. That man terrorized us. What is the world coming to when you can't have a peaceable dinner at a public restaurant? What about the woman who said the victim provoked the assault? She is dead wrong. No picture is worth a punch to the face. Her statement indicated what the man did was okay and it is not okay to assault someone ever.