Driving Lesson One of the favorite sports of homo sapiens always been a witch hunt. But what is a witch, you might say. The definition varies over time. For the knights of virtue rely more fashionable than moral criteria thoughtful. Nowadays, the three kinds of witches - or sorcerers - the most popular are probably the wife beater, child molesters and fundamentalists, replacing advantageously the backslider, the invert and the Wandering Jew of old. The world is still filled with these dangerous characters lurking treacherously in the guise of the man in the world. The sorcerer, in fact, it can be a stranger, a neighbor, relative ... and even you or me. Fortunately, there are brave vigilantes constantly on the lookout.
scene, strictly Authentic, which will follow, taking place this fall at a date that caution us to keep secret. I brought my wife in a large parking lot, nearly empty on holidays, for a driving lesson manual transmission. Last week we tried the reverse. This experience was a revelation for my patient student, who finally understood how to gradually release kurochi (word meaning clutch Japanese and slang) without stalling the engine.
"Advance! Brakes! To the left ... no right. Say, you saw the post there? "
PS Have you noticed the color of this car?
Design: Rie Mochizuki
Tonight, shortly before sunset, the place was completely deserted. Except that, during our maneuvers learned backwards, and sometimes zigzag, a black car, with tinted windows and look almost military, suddenly came to tour our little parking. Inside this tin noisy four-wheel drive, two pairs of eyes that keep us secure. Perhaps the curious in search of exoticism. Or a redneck who makes the speed in a parking lot to impress his girlfriend, or strutting before the only available public, ie us. The black Jeep
has already disappeared. My gracious student continues his quietly driving exercises, for about fifteen minutes. Then we took the road that takes us back to the city.
Last stop before entering the ramp connecting us to the boulevard. We exchange our seats and I'm back at the wheel. My student is pleased with his rapid progress. I'm glad to see pleased and return home without incident. Just as I am about to start, a police car comes towards us, having burned his stop. I am preparing to leave when she stops at my height. The window lowered and the face of a young, fresh and strong police appears.
- You do not see a green car with a man and a woman who cavil?
- Not ... Moreover, there is nobody over there, I'm pointing to the mountain.
my passenger's face lights up with a wide smile as she comes to understand, long before me that the green car in question is ours. The police, reassured, thanks us and goes, runs, flies to the rescue of the alleged victim.
We have not gone fifty yards that another police car is committed to full speed in the ramp. And as we drive very quietly, she passes us without giving us any attention.
- This time it is no longer a couple is bickering, but a couple who tapoche, I'm out to my students, laughing softly.
And yet, the parking that we have just left was actually desert. Two fellow walkers in air, with their dog. Three empty cars at the stop at the entrance of forest trail, probably trippers. None of the cars was green ... except ours. In fact, it seems that it would do more these days, green cars.
When we reached the boulevard, a third police car arrived on the hats of wheels and engages the ramp after a controlled skid.
- is more serious than I thought, I exclaimed. The suspects may be trying to quibble with their rifles.
But this cascade of manhunt, the delayed precipitation, this escalation tragicomic these scapinades Suréalistes, this is too much for my student, who laughs, as in the theater.
We have to obviously, this squad of armed police and alarmed is actually in our pursuit. And only their slowness to react is we have escaped a difficult explanation, to the point of a gun. Apparently, they do not know our registration number. Better not to rot here.
to us to investigate. Trying to reconstruct the facts. A young woman wearing an elegant coat Cashmere, backs his car while zigzagging green, then stops suddenly, climbing slightly on the sidewalk, while his passenger, a man with some pace, gesticulating, pointing to the sometimes driving, sometimes the gear shift, sometimes the lamppost approaching too quickly. At this very moment, an unshaven redneck, Jeep and accompanied by his girlfriend made up, going to places nearby, a well known parking learner drivers in the neighborhood. The redneck alerted by a suspicious behavior he deems is neither one nor two. It darkens to any blind and runs a vast semi-circle around the green car, while maintaining a safe distance. The redneck then directed his girlfriend to alert the authorities as soon as possible, it immediately made strafing the keyboard of his mobile phone. Hello 911, there is a man and a woman in a green car that cavil. The redneck snatches the phone hands adds: Quick, it's serious, it is perhaps in danger. This couple is a victim of vigilante confirmation bias, which means that one sees readily that was expected to see. "The women drummers are all men. So all men can be batsmen women. So a man caught in a suspicious attitude with a woman can only be a wife beater. I know what I think and not what I hear from my eyes. My cat runs away, it is surely he who stole my sardines. My ax is gone, I find that my neighbor has a head Raider ax. And, as a measure of safety, it is better not to rent his apartment to a cat, a thief ax, or even an immigrant. But it became shameful to have the air of a racist, he is still proud to play vigilante. Long live the lynching!
In his panic mixed with excitement, the redneck fails to address the issue of our plate. When the constabulary arrives on site, a good quarter of an hour later despite the proximity of the police station, we already left the scene of the alleged crime. The police see that our car is green, but our cheerful mine leaves him rather think we are a peaceful weekend strollers. We are like more than to brave witnesses of heinous criminals. Especially since my passenger carries no marks of violence, no hair tousled, not the slightest bruise, no blood is still wet. The police can not take the risk of psychological interest to us for a true victim may be in the making gut a wood. As for the other officers arrived as reinforcements, they could block all the exits. But their spirit was already, by anticipation, the scene of the alleged crime, and they remained blind to anything that does not comply with their imagination.
Furthermore, was it really necessary to mobilize a fleet of three police vehicles to subdue a suspect now berate his wife (or vice versa)? A new inquiry is warranted.
The original sketch
