I saw the woman in red.
“Thank you,” I said to her. “Thank you for staying.”
if you see the police talking to someone: whoever they are, however they are acting, and whatever they look like; and you have a minute to spare, please.. please, stick around and make it known you are watching
if you have a phone, record it, or just hold your phone as if you were recording it
people can feel the gaze of others and you will alter the behaviour of the officers for the better
just yesterday i was walking by an irate homeless person yelling at three officers, refusing to move
two officers were directing foot traffic to keep a distance and the third was prodding the homeless man with his toe asking him identifying questions and telling him he needed to get up and move
by my just standing there i could sense the officers sensing my presence, every so often they were send me a quick sideways glance
the officer using his foot to interact with the homeless man turned his head to see what his fellow officers kept looking at and saw me, standing there drinking a coffee, staring at him
he jerked his gaze back at the man lying on the ground and knelt down and just placed his hand on the homeless man's shoulder and talked to him calmly
the officer managed to get the man to sit up and answer his questions, eventually he got up and walked away and the officers gave me a look like, 'you happy?!' and got in their cars and drove off
i was happy with how the interaction turned out, the whole thing lasted less than a minute
i would like to think that my presence had little to do with it
if you have a phone, record it, or just hold your phone as if you were recording it
people can feel the gaze of others and you will alter the behaviour of the officers for the better
just yesterday i was walking by an irate homeless person yelling at three officers, refusing to move
two officers were directing foot traffic to keep a distance and the third was prodding the homeless man with his toe asking him identifying questions and telling him he needed to get up and move
by my just standing there i could sense the officers sensing my presence, every so often they were send me a quick sideways glance
the officer using his foot to interact with the homeless man turned his head to see what his fellow officers kept looking at and saw me, standing there drinking a coffee, staring at him
he jerked his gaze back at the man lying on the ground and knelt down and just placed his hand on the homeless man's shoulder and talked to him calmly
the officer managed to get the man to sit up and answer his questions, eventually he got up and walked away and the officers gave me a look like, 'you happy?!' and got in their cars and drove off
i was happy with how the interaction turned out, the whole thing lasted less than a minute
i would like to think that my presence had little to do with it