At about 12:30am, the same officer parked his vehicle and began striding down the sidewalk. This was one block over from the location previously reported about. It's typical for people to drift back into an area within days after folks have been chased out. After all, there still aren't any other places to go and there's the nightly need to be... somewhere.
This particular location is a sidewalk along one end of a block and, presumably, is one of the few places that people are ever allowed because it's in front of a large church property and, on the other side of the street, is a row of apartments mostly occupied by college kids (which have their own... uh, "disorderly" and dubious scenes) so perhaps it's felt that this is a lower impact situation than, say, where homeowners and families reside.
I'd only just arrived and so paused when I spotted the officer arriving, wondering if this meant a repeat experience pending -- possibly another routine roust. As he walked by me, heading down the lineup of sleeping persons toward a more active and boisterous group toward the far end, he seemed to recognize me and greeting me with: "Hello, sir." Unusually respectful.
I watched as he encountered others down the way, flashing his light onto the property and scanning for the more hidden ones. [It's "trespassing" to be ON that property]
After a short while, he walked back down my way and so I asked him outright if he was going to be making us go, again. He hesitated a moment and then responded: "Not right now." This kind of noncommital, opaque statement is common from the police. One must often try to 'read between the lines'.
But he then went on to strike up a conversation with me. He began by expressing his "frustration" about being missioned to go out on his beat and "chase" people around, fully aware that there are no other real alternatives or options that are any more 'legal' and nothing being provided by the Powers That Be, either. And that folks will only come back -- CAN only come back, being merely shuffled (harassed) back and forth among very limited options.
We briefly reviewed my own status, predicament and outlook. He seemed a bit intrigued about me and found me sober, sane and reasonably articulate and knowledgable. He wanted to know if I, personally, might have any ideas about any potential solutions or degree of relief for this paradoxical, impractical game board we're all on.
I admitted that I did have some opinions and maybe even pragmatic ideas, and that I also shared some of the very real concerns that housed residents and law enforcement obviously do, too. He then told me about his superior officer who is the person within the police department and is in charge of these campaigns, issuing orders for him and other officers to go out and handle these things as they are. And he gave me a business card for the guy, pointing out that his email address was on there -- encouraging me to contact him and attempt to strike up some kind of dialoque.
He then shook my hand and thanked me for the discussion, before heading off on his duties. He let us all remain, after having directed some to quiet down. I noticed that he did not ticket the few sleeping persons that were 'trespassing' on the property.
He told me that he'd just counted 40 people out there.
I 'overslept' about 15 minutes this morn. The tacit departure time from there is 7am. I was awakened by that same officer, walking down the sidewalk again, saying "Wake up! This is your Wakeup Call!" to everyone.
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