Jaywalking at the Police Station...

[elfs]

This morning, I was walking toward work. There's a police station that I often walk past-- not always, as there are many routes from the train station to the office-- and today, just as I got to 8th and Virginia, the light turned against me and I had to wait. Another man was standing there, bouncing on his feet, watching the traffic. A cop came out of the Starbucks there and walked up behind us. The other man was clearly anxious to cross, waiting for a clearing in the traffic, bouncing energetically. The cop and I exchanged looks.

The man took three steps out and the cop whistled. "Hey, buddy," he said. He jerked his head with a 'come here' motion. "Just wait. It'll change."

When it did, the man and I walked across the intersection. The cop walked the other way. "Gotta be careful," the man said.

I mean, really. Jaywalking at the police station, how stupid is that?

Comments

[blaisepascal]

I've used jaywalking as an example of the difference between general and cultural knowledge in an RPG I was designing. My friends and I were perfectly willing and able to cross the road circling our campus, seemingly oblivious to the traffic, the lights, etc, but a hypothetical, equally intelligent, medieval transplant following us would get killed at that intersection because he wouldn't know how to deal with the cars.