Should I call the police?

#TriggerWarning #humantrafficking

This post includes some uncomfortable scenarios, and it is a sensitive topic to talk about for me. I want to note it down so that in case this happens again, I am more alert on what to do, and I hope it's helpful to you as well.

September 11th, 2021 - I had a meeting with a few friends for the volunteer work that I do. We were heading to a restaurant to have dinner, and I was the driver with 4 other people in the car. The street has 4 lanes in total, and two on my side of the road. I was driving on the left lane of the 2 lanes about 10 meters behind a white Land Cruiser car.

Suddenly, I saw a lady opening the door and falling out from that moving Land Cruiser. She was sitting at the back on the right side of the car. So she opened to the side of the street that has traffic going on. It was very dangerous. She could have been hit by another car because it was so unexpected that she opened the door.

I was shocked and I braked and stopped for a while to look and try to think about what to do. Then, a Chinese-looking guy came out of the car (the car stopped) and dragged her arm to go back into the car. She seemed exhausted and was not willing to go back in. [Red flag]. I wasn't sure if she was drugged or drunk.

[I was in a shocked mode. I need to do better next time. One thing I remembered to do was to ask my friend to take note of the car's plate number.]

Then another Chinese-looking guy came out of the car, and both men pulled her back into the car. By this time, I went to the side of the street to park and ask my friends in case they know any numbers to call to report this.

Was she trying to escape? Are they trafficking her? What is happening?

The car then went past us, and I tried to follow the car to see what happened. The car then stopped on the side, and a guy came out and went into the building where they stopped at. I'm not sure what else happened there. I really hope that she is okay.

When I got back home, I asked my brother for police's phone numbers. My brother shared a few phone numbers with me which was helpful.

I called the police station responsible for the area where I saw this happen to report the plate number and described what happened. I then also asked if this kind of situation happened often, and the police officer sadly responded: "Yes, and it could be internal household things, and sometimes it is hard to intervene." This is very sad to hear.

I then reflected on why I didn't do better at the time to intervene. A few things that I can think of are that primarily, I was shocked and not sure how to intervene on the spot. There have been news stories about shootings in general, and I was shocked.

Secondly, I should have saved important phone numbers, like the police numbers, or ambulance. I have been back in Cambodia for a year now, and though it sounds like a long time, I still don't know a lot of things. :(

I am angry at myself, and also at the men who dragged the lady. I hope she is safe. I hope all women out there are safe and know where to find resources when they need help. I hope to be someone who knows of resources, so I can share and use as needed. I need to do better.

In my opinion, bystander intervention is a very complicated topic in Cambodian society. I grew up hearing fights with my neighbors, and my family would always say: "It's other people's homes. Do not intervene or say anything." And another more recent example was right after I arrived home from abroad in 2020 - a neighbor was beating his daughter up, and I was preparing to go out and stop him, and my mom stopped me from doing that, She said that it was not the right thing to do and that this happens often. It hurts me so much that we allow abuse to happen many times. :( And then when this event happened - my body's reaction was to not intervene directly, and I don't like that. I need to unlearn this!