I witnessed two disturbing episodes of nasty behavior by people with power in Providence.

I was in the Post Office that shares a building and lobby with the Federal court.  US Marshals stand post in the lobby.  I was in line with a small group of people for the Post Office.  An elderly Asian-American woman was walking by the Marshals when she dropped something. One Marshal picked up the item and gave it to the woman. She said,” Thank you” and went into line. As she did another Marshal said loud and rudely “why did you help her?” some of us looked over and the other Marshal looked as surprised as we did.  The nasty Marshal said “Why did you help a Chink?”   As I finished at the counter I was pissed! So I went over to the Marshal and proceeded to tell him how racist and unprofessional he was. He did not respond except for looking at me like he was about to throw cuffs on me. I stopped and left before I was sent to some secret prison and accused of terrorism.

Later in the day I was walking down a side street in the financial district when a late model burgundy Mercedes came blazing through the street and blew through a large puddle soaking the man walking in front of me.  The Mercedes was forced to stop at the red light in front of us. As the soaked man was expressing his shock to the driver of the car (who pretended the man wasn’t standing next to him) I realized the license plate was HOUSE 44 and sitting in the driver’s seat was RI State Representative Peter J. Petrarca.  I know this can happen by accident but he was at the light for a good amount of time with no cars behind him and could simply of said “I’m sorry.” instead he ignored the poor guy and blasted away as soon as the light turned.

What the hell is going on with people? Are people becoming more nasty or am I just more aware? Is this just people who think they are better than others because they have a little power?