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MichaelBluejay

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From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

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Sharon McKendrick says police did nothing about driver who hit her

Sharon McKendrick of the Downtown West neighborhood posted the following on Nextdoor.com, though you can see the post there only if you have a Nextdoor.com account and you live in a bordering neighborhood.

I was once hit & run'd and had a license plate plus multiple witnesses but the police had no interest in pursuing it, though in my case I wasn't injured at all.  Still, given my experience, it wouldn't surprise me at all if Ms. McKendrick's account is true.  I relayed it to the Austin Chronicle.  They did a story once about the police stonewalling a cyclist who was simply trying to get a copy of the crash report so she could get her insurance to cover her expensive injuries following an at-fault driver hitting her.

The sarcasm at the end of the post is because she was replying to a post by a neighbor about her witnessing someone stealing packages in the neighborhood, and being hesitant to call the police because the suspect was Hispanic and likely poor.

I was in the middle of crossing an intersection of a parkway when a driver came screeching out of a neighborhood and turned onto the road I was crossing.  He was going so fast he couldn't possibly stop at the stop sign to check both ways for traffic or pedestrians.  Since I was in his way, he decided to toss me up in the air with the front of his truck.  His back tires would have rolled over my head had I not rolled over in time.  When he was finished with that, he got out of his truck, grabbed my arms, and proceeded to shake me.  It was only after a witness stopped and told him to let go of me that he let me fall to the ground.  Luckily, the police let him (and his 4 children who were in the truck with him) on his merry way without so much as a breathalyzer test.  They did not press charges because "there was no witness" (the witness was there when the police arrived and called repeatedly, but the police would not return his call).  Thankfully, I was presented with head to toe injuries (some of which I will deal with for the rest of my life).  Since the driver had nothing to his name, I get to pay literally and figuratively for everything.  I'm so grateful I could remove that burden from him.  I'm also relieved to know that 4 young children have a father who cares enough about their safety to drive in such a fashion.  Laws and human decency should not be enforced.  That way, these poor stereotyped people who cannot afford bail for doing something they shouldn't be doing in the first place can continue doing it over and over again.