Homeless people often get a bad rap, but when you're about to get your ass kicked by a PCP-crazed attacker, an unemployed former Crip living on the street can be handy to have around.
Dallas police officer Billy Taylor learned that first-hand last Tuesday in front of The Bridge homeless shelter. He was in full retreat from Samuel Dewey Jackson, the allegedly PCP-addled man who was attacking him.
"He went straight for the officer, and the officer had his baton out," Charles Alexander, a homeless bystander, told CBS 11. "But it wasn't doing any good because he was really pc'd out."
That's when Alexander intervened. The 45-year-old former Crip stepped into the street, pulled Jackson off the officer, and body-slammed him to the pavement WWE-style. Jackson was arrested. Alexander was congratulated, as well he should be.
Councilman Dwaine Caraway praised him in an interview with the Huffington Post.
"What could come out of this, [what] could signal messages to Crips and gang leaders, is that doing good things are better than doing bad things," he said. "If we had more folks like [Alexander], who had that change of heart, how much better would our country would be?"
Update on October 25: DPD says they are so appreciative of Alexander's help that Chief David Brown will give him a Citizens Certificate of Merit. They'll present the award this afternoon at headquarters.
