People Amuse Me

I love people watching. When i do this, some days i can almost hear a British/BBC voice doing a commentary as events are unfolding.

Yesterday the city closed off a major street near me because of a sink hole. Cops blocked both ends of the street and bridge for obvious safety concerns. I wandered over there to check it out for myself as a pedestrian because i honestly had nothing better to do and it was a nice day out.

It was approximately 5pm when i was on the scene. I wish i had a web cam to set up and stream this because it was just too funny for me. Here's a squad car parked blocking traffic with caution tape up and the road is clearly closed. As i walked by i saw no less than 3 cars try to turn onto the street and go under the caution tape. These people were promptly discouraged by a quite angry police officer who was not afraid to yell at them.

Here's an example of what i heard:
"Hey! The road is closed."
"Where do you think you're going?"
(my favorite...)
"Why do you think i'm parked blocking traffic? I don't care if you need to go through. You need to go around. I'm hear to keep you safe and i don't care where you think you need to go."

I've seen similar things happen with people and police officers when they're blocking traffic and it never ceases to amaze me. I normally do my polite head nod or wave acknowledging that i see them and go on about my business while keeping out of their way.

Once upon a time i thought i wanted to be a police officer. For various reasons, i decided that it wasn't for me. I can't help but think what i would have said in those situations. In hindsight i don't think i would have been nearly as diplomatic with these people. Perhaps it's for the better that i never went into that career field after all... :)

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Last summer while riding my bike i saw a car cut around an ambulance into oncoming traffic because they clearly were in a hurry. The ambulance hit their lights and waved the person to pull over and proceeded to ream them out. Technically this would be an illegal stop and the ambulance drivers could have gotten in hot water. Yeah. Right. Good luck finding me someone who will prosecute THAT one.

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These incidents are funny at face value for me but they're also saddening when i stop to think about it. Is it a lack of respect for authority figures that i see? Is it people being too selfish and into their own personal lives/interests to consider others? Is this summed up as "me first" mentality? Is this just blatant stupidity? Have we as a society lost all sense of etiquette?

I try to not read too much into peoples actions but it's hard. Their actions are funny to me but after a while i can't help but wonder what inspired them. I've always believed that "actions speak louder than words" and so these people are saying a LOT about themselves.

Pardon me for ending abruptly. There's a bridge that's out and i need to go have another laugh at other peoples expense.