Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?

There has been some talk lately in the press about the dangers of 3rd Avenue in Seattle, particularly at the Pike/Pine area. The papers have been talking about a security tape that showed a gang beating up someone at 3rd & Pike, and apparently in the beginning of the clip, you can see a police officer, and then when the beating begins, the officer disappears. So the police have been getting some criticism, and the city as a whole has been getting criticism for the general unsafe nature of that area.

Now, 3rd & Pike happens to be my bus stop on the afternoons that I go to the gym, and I do have to say that it can be an assortment of hooligans, people begging for money, shady looking characters, and people spitting on the sidewalks (I hate it when people do this). I've seen drug deals there, I've had some weird people talk to me, and while I wouldn't say that I feel unsafe a whole lot...well, it's just not my favorite place in the world.

So today three police officers walk through the bus stop with GIGANTIC nightsticks. I don't know, maybe they were regulation size, but they seemed huge. And it was so amazing to see a police presence on that block, in such a real and threatening manner, that I was distracted, stared at them, and completely missed my bus. I had to wait an extra 20 minutes at the stop, during which time the nightsticks disappeared and the unsavory characters reappeared.

So you can see how actual police presence appeared to be at cross-purposes for me today. Really, I would have been safer if I had gotten the early bus, and I would have seen the earlier bus if I hadn't been watching the police patrol the area. Foiled again, police!

But everything happens for a reason, and I guess my reason was that I wouldn't have had anything to blog about today if that hadn't happened.

Now, since it's Monday, I have to go read Time Magazine. I can tell how the rest of the week is going to shape up based on how much of the magazine I get through on Monday night. If I don't get at least halfway through, the week is pretty much shot and that bad boy's gonna start backing up on you, til next thing you know you're reading last month's current events. Or something like that. I can't even take the time to phrase it correctly, I gotta go start reading!