Reflections on the timeless philosophy of N.W.A.

Last night at 17th and P streets, a block from my work, I came a cross a scene that I was told had something to do with a vice presidential motorcade (or possibly something even more heavy-duty). There were a couple dozen people standing on the corners, and traffic was being interrupted by the police. There was a lone cop car parked at an odd angle blocking off the westbound lane of P street, and next to it was a similarly stationary civilian vehicle. From a distance, this must have suggested an accident, though someone passing by on the sidewalk could see it wasn't. One police officer was standing in the street a couple dozen yards beyond the cruiser. There was nothing suggesting that the street was completely closed to traffic. Just as I arrived at the intersection, a pizza delivery car passed through the intersection and went slowly around the police vehicle. I looked away and can't vouch for what exactly happened in the next ten seconds, but the officer, wishing to seal off the road, must have tried to stop the car. I didn't hear the car accelerate or anything similarly aggressive. But when I looked again, the cop had his gun pointed at the driver through the windshield and was yelling at him. The driver, a middle-aged Asian man by the looks of it, slowly reversed his car so as to turn around. But this wasn't enough for the cop, who decided to take the man out of the car and make him kneel in the street, indefinitely, for no apparent reason.

1) If you travel by motorcade in this city, that probably means you would better serve humanity under six feet of earth. Maybe the number of cars in one's escort even corresponds to body count, but I'm not one to speculate. That additional civilians have to be threatened to keep the streets clear only makes it worse.

2) I don't think I've ever seen a cop with a drawn weapon outside of a protest setting before. As the officer in question was keeping people and cars from moving west on P, there were people and cars leaking east on P. The gunslinger bit was a bunch of cowboy nonsense.