(June 2023)
As I was checking on the progress of the nest-making birds down at the bush by the sidewalk in front of our house Monday, a lady pushing a baby stroller stopped by and asked me what was happening.
I told her and she bent down and peered into the underbrush. “There it is,” she said, pointing.
Following her line of sight I still couldn't see anything resembling a nest.
At first I had assumed she was one of the nannies taking care of babies in this neighborhood, but then I noticed there was no child in her stroller, just some random gear.
She also had few teeth and she looked careworn.
As we chatted a police vehicle pulled up and an officer got out. The lady started to push her cart up the sidewalk when he came over to talk with her.
It appeared that they knew each other.
The conversation lasted a few minutes; I could overhear bits of it but not enough to get more than a rough sense of what was going on. I lingered nearby as the woman was black and this was an interaction with law enforcement. I was the only witness.
Eventually, the woman turned her stroller around and headed back down the hill. As she passed, she asked me “Did you notice what kind of birds they were?”
The police officer eyed me for a moment and then came over to tell me what had just happened.
“She is well-known to us as a person who comes up here to steal people’s mail. Then she takes it to a nearby bank and tries to open bank accounts in their names. The bank tellers recognize her and call us.
“We’ve arrested her numerous times, most recently just two weeks ago, but she keeps doing it. She’s homeless and usually stays down in the flats. She comes up here looking for new targets because so many old people live around here.
“I told her to go back down the hill,” he concluded. “She has no business to be up here.”
Then he sped off to shadow her as she headed back to the poorer end of town.
Afterward, I thought carefully about what I’d just seen. The officer had been calm and professional throughout and the lady had been polite and responsive. They almost could have been two neighbors talking about the weather.
But actually he was telling her to stay away from this part of town and that he would be watching her to make sure she did that.
So was this police harassment? Or an officer trying to prevent a federal crime? Community policing or structural racism? Depending on your perspective, it could be one, or the other, all or none of the above.
As far as I was concerned, it was pretty much just another day in America, land of the haves and have-nots. And no, I didn’t see what kind of birds they were.
(This happened one year ago. I haven’t seen the lady or the police officer since.)
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