Holding Out (As) A Hero?

The Militant already knows he's a hero of sorts to the overlooked native Angelenos whose voices remained drowned out by mainstream society.

But on a much more serious note, what really qualifies for true heroism?

On Wednesday night, the Militant took a little walk with his trusty K-9 unit, for both the K-9's sake and to make a delivery to a nearby operative.

When he finally returned to the compound, the Militant spent some quality time with the K-9, brushing its fur on the compound's front grounds. A man in an orange t-shirt stood across the street, chatting on his cellphone, next to a row of trash bins, set out for the next morning's pick up.

An attractive young woman walked by, overburdened by several shopping bags, and she displayed a brief smile to the Militant and his K-9, and the Militant smiled back.

But after she passed by, the cellphone-talking man in the orange shirt walked across the street and said something that sounded like, "Hey, what are you doing tonight?" and walked briskly immediately behind her.

The Militant, still holding the K-9's leash sprung to attention with this situation. Did this guy know her? Or was he up to some trouble? The Militant did not want to see someone in danger -- especially someone walking in the vicinity of his compound.

The woman continued to walk briskly, and didn't seem to acknowledge the guy, who was either walking beside her or immediately behind her.

The Militant and the K-9 started to follow, ready to loudly shout a commanding, attention-getting, "WHATUP?" as he was waiting for some certain cue, like a sudden flinch or a scream even...but they just keep walking. The Militant was still wondering what exactly was going on...

...until he and the K-9 got distracted by a small dog that broke loose from its owner's leash, and the Militant saw the owner catch up to the little thing and grab it before the Militant's K-9 went buck wild.

At this point the two walking figures had seemingly disappeared at the end of the block, where an apartment building stood. He and the K-9 ran to the end of the block, looked around...

...and they were gone.

The only thing the Militant saw was a car in the middle of the cross-street around the corner, which backed up suddenly, then stopped briefly, before charging forward.

It was an LAPD cruiser.

So what happened? Was the dude someone the women knew, but wasn't on good talking terms currently? Was he ready to assault her, but gave up his effort once he saw the police car? Did the police car see what was going on and took care of the situation? Was the police car there for totally unrelated reasons?

The Militant certainly hoped that woman made it home safely and wasn't in any danger. But he can't help but wonder that if she was, that he should have stepped up more to keep her from being in the situation. Nobody messes with a person walking a dog, and certainly a would-be mugger/attacker/rapist wouldn't want to be in a situation with someone suddenly walking their K-9 unit messing up their intended diabolical plans. The Militant knew he did the right thing, but did he do enough of it?

The situation seemed to vanish into the night, Maybe it was just an illusion. Whatever it was, he hopes it just vanished, period.