When In Sartell
By Mitch Berg
Two morons in Sartell pin a woman to the bar and cut off her underwear…:
The two men walk over to the woman, seated at the bar, and Baumgardner pulled out a pocketknife, while Puhalla held her down on the bar by her wrists and forearms.
Baumgardner walked around her from the back, reached in her pants and cut each side of her underwear. At this time, she said, another man came up to her, poked at her chest, and said they should cut that off next. She believed the third man was referring to her bra.
…as a bunch of other “men” stood by:
She yelled for help several times and asked for the bartender to intervene, but he said, “I can’t or they will make things worse for me.” She said there were up to six other men in the bar at the time, and none of them came to her aid either.
During the altercation she lost her shoes. Eventually, she ran barefoot into the bathroom, attempting to hold up her pants.
For the two perps, jail – with ripped underwear – is probably just barely too good for ’em.
For the other “men” involved? Being forced to spend every night at the “Dam Bar” in Sartell is probably punishment enough, assuming it passes Eighth Amendment muster.
December 21st, 2007 at 9:54 am
8 males in the bar and none of them has what it takes to be a man!
December 21st, 2007 at 10:30 am
Sheesh.
December 21st, 2007 at 10:43 am
Tase ’em, bro.
December 21st, 2007 at 11:22 am
Where was Teddy Kennedy at that time?
December 21st, 2007 at 1:07 pm
I would comment on this, but what can you really say? What would youo do if you were on the island in Lord of the Flies?
In this instance I would have been on the 911 in five seconds.
December 21st, 2007 at 2:16 pm
What Kerm Said. I mean, do we know whether one of those guys didn’t make a 911 call. Hopefully that will come out.
You ARE talking three guys and at least one knife. Not sure I would get all huffy and challenge them to a dance contest (you know the commercial I am talking about) But I certainly would dial 911 even if it was just to have the tracer on and the operator listen to the commotion going on.
Flash
December 21st, 2007 at 2:22 pm
No, I’m not saying the other guys should have gone all Rambo on the perps (although it woulda been cool). And we do need to find out who called 911 (although from the story, it appeared it was the victim).
And the bartender – how dumb did he have to be to allow that in his establishment? Yeep.
December 21st, 2007 at 3:33 pm
If that bartender was worried about “making things worse” for “me”, I’d say he(?) is SOL. Either this behavior gets a pass and develops into a trend, or the community comes down hard on the bar. Either way, action would have been a better course.
December 21st, 2007 at 3:37 pm
Well, the bartender probably doesn’t have to worry about HIS establishment much longer. We had something similar here a few months ago. Guy started beating his girlfriend outside the club. Had quite an audience watching. Lady driving by intervened, putting herself at risk. She also called the cops. No one else in that large crowd did.
December 22nd, 2007 at 8:29 am
My sister-in-law and I intervened when a piece of white trash was beating up his Indian girlfriend out on a rural road. We were at my husband’s grandmother’s farm and could hear something happening down at the end of the driveway. As we walked towards them, the “big man” stopped and left and we brought her up to the house and called the police. She had a baby in a stroller who got to sit and watch the whole thing. I’m pretty sure she was back with him within hours. I hope she’s still alive-she was a nice girl.
Point is, we would no more sit and let something like that happen then cut our own noses off. And I’m scared of knives and guns (neither of which were in evidence in this case, but we didn’t know that when we went to help her). We’re women. I’m so ashamed of any man that would let this sort of thing go on.
December 22nd, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Not that it has anything to do with the situation in Sartell, but the last time I intervened in a domestic dispute (about twenty years ago now) I ended up in the hospital with about thirty stitches holding my guts in.
We’re standing in a buffet line at a holiday party (of all places) when a drunken guy starts in on his drunken wife…Swiftee takes offense to the slapping women and restrains the guy but is finally forced to deck him.
So is the wife thankful?
Heh, not quite…she starts pummeling me with her old fashioned snap purse (the kind with the metal frame inside..ouch!!) while her drunken hubby gets up, sneaks behind and puts a blade into my stomach.
Oh yeah..the best part is that drunken hubby get off in court because when the cops got to the scene he was receiving a bit of payback (sans a weapon)…self defence was offered and bought by the judge and a large hospital bill was offered to and paid by yours truly.
In a similar situation, I’d probably intervene again…well maybe; but next time the drunken hubby is getting a boot to make sure he stays down the first time!
December 22nd, 2007 at 3:17 pm
Sigh..should read “self defense was offered to and bought by the judge”
December 22nd, 2007 at 5:52 pm
There’s almost always a lot of room in between playing hero and playing Sergeant Schultz. I don’t, as a matter of policy, go into the well, I’d have [whatever]*, but, sheesh, there isn’t a lot that’s lower risk to oneself than stepping out and calling 911 on the cellphone.
_________________________
*Reminds me of a story. Mitch, when I buy you the first of a zillion beers I owe you, remind me.
December 22nd, 2007 at 8:53 pm
I agree someone should have called the cops. Hmmmmm Oh wait, does anyone know that she spent over 1 hour at that bar after the incident with her boyfriend there, continued to drink with these 2 men, and herself, did not go to the police until the next night. BTW the cop shop is on the same road 2 blocks down. There is a lot more to thi$ $tory.
December 22nd, 2007 at 9:36 pm
Hm. That was not clear in the story.
And there usually is more to most stories.
December 26th, 2007 at 9:45 am
Yeah, she didn’t go to police until the next night. She came into the bar the next night to drink with them again. It was another man that she was with that told her they were making fun of the incident and pushed her to call police. She has since recanted her story-but was told she will do time in jail if she testifies on their behalf. We all know she won’t do that – so she’ll probably change her story again!