I take the bus home with Little Dave every Thursday morning, between 5 and 5:35. Dave is a small young fellow who always sits in the rap seat closest to the driver, attempts to befriend them with light, respectful conversation and does likewise with his larger fellows. Every man is larger than Little Dave.

Our current driver is a gruffly friendly, muscular black man in his early fifties. Dave pointed to him and said, “Good bus driver; real good driver.”

Dave also liked our recent driver, the one who hated me and wouldn’t pull over for me, riding by me a few times, because, I surmise, I was not an ass-kissing white man like Little Dave, who got along famously with that cracker hater.

This brought us to Dave’s court case.

In 2014, Dave was sitting in the rap seat and said, “Good morning, driver,” to which the driver responded, “Fuck you, cracker.”

Dave said, “Don’t call me that.”

The driver persisted with the following statements, all of which were repeated in time-honored ghetto style, with Dave objecting after each:

“You ain’t nothin’ but a cracker.”

“If you don’t like it, go sit in the back of the bus.”

“You nothin’ but a bitch-ass cracka, cracker!”

Finally, with a stop up ahead, Dave had had enough. He got up, walked up to the driver, and slapped him where he sat.

The much larger driver unbuckled, got up and tried to throw Dave through the front door, but Dave held onto the driver and was not thrown, which must remain a point of humiliation for the driver to this day.

As Dave and the driver grappled, a police officer parked at the stop, boarded and arrested Dave, took his statement and locked him up.

Dave paid 2,000 dollars to a bail bondsmen and has been out of jail ever since, but is still awaiting trial. In 2014, 2015, 2016 and once this year, the bus driver has failed to report to court so that he might identify Dave, which Dave does not understand, as he has seen himself on the video recording slapping the driver. Dave faces a Second Degree Assault charge and is awaiting another court date, the judge having promised him, that if the driver does not show for the fifth time, the charges will be thrown out.

Dave is still on the hook, even as 60% of hoodrats convicted of handgun violations are set free and most hoodrats under 17 are released into their parents’ custody within 2 days of their arrest, even for handgun violations and fighting the police.

Oh, did I neglect to mention that Dave the Cracker is white?

Good luck, Dave.

A Fighter’s View of Predatory Aggression: The Forever Autumn Press Edition