I decided to take Friday off my real job and come to the city and have some fun....it was raining, I may as well have stayed home :( No bikes, not too many people out. They were all probably packing for long weekend trips.
The bar was ok, there were people visiting from afar. Long weekends always bring people back. Some you want to see again and others, well they just come back.
I stayed downtown in the cheap place, that way I could have lots of beers.
But it was dead, so that didn't happen and I just had enough beer to make riding not an option. Besides, it was dark. It is getting close to bambi season.
The cheap hotel aka bathhouse was quiet too. Nothing happened there except me having a sauna and then going to sleep.
When I awoke, I had a shower, steam and then .......really there is nothing going to happen here....headed to breakfast.
I had to get fuel, the bike did the sputter before I had to switch to reserve. There are hardly any gas stations downtown. I had to go to the far side of Whyte Avenue.
On the way back downtown, a Corvette and a Viper were at a stoplight - side by side. There was a third lane, which ended about 4 car lengths up. I was tempted. The Corvette was blasting Subterranean Homesick Blues, by Dylan. The Viper had a pretty girl in the passenger seat.
I really thought about showing these guys driving about $150k worth of metal what a vehicle significantly cheaper could do. But I resisted.
The took off and burnt rubber and had to brake hard at the next light. Impressive.
Whyte Avenue is not a place which lends itself to that. It is cafes, shops and people out people watching, what's happening on the road is a none event. Even the bikers know this. Still would have liked to have shown them, though.
Constable Powers of the Edmonton Police Service has been tweeting stuff for two years. It was meant as an outreach tool and for recruiting purposes. Sort of like a day in the life of a cop. The constable was very good at getting close to the line on what he could say about issues, without crossing it.
Some of his posts were funny, usually it involved former high school BMOC's and their drunken escapades years later. He had hard hitting posts about a drunk driver with a kid in the back. Basically it was a window into a world people rarely see. Not a scriptwriter's version.
Last Saturday he took a picture after an armed standoff, had ended. This picture showed no-one, just the barrel of a gun and a car. It basically said this was his view for a long time. This is not just a cop view, this could be a soldier in Afghanistan, or a firefighter with a hose. Someone doing their job. The picture spoke volumes. I preferred to think of Cst Powers as a beat cop or the guy pulling over the excessive speeders more than a guy holding weapon which from that distance only had one purpose. But that is part of the job.
A local TV station must have been following Cst Powers on Twitter. Hell I would, if I were working in news. In fact, when I worked at a radio station and had to do local news the first places I'd call were the police stations for any updates from the night before. This was in Fort Colonge, Quebec. That town is near Chapeau, Quebec and Canadian Forces Base Petawawa. When I was working at the station the former Airborne Squadron was located at the base. They liked to go to Chapeau, Quebec on Friday and Saturday nights and take on the farm boys, loggers and Quebec Provincial Police.
Anyway, local news lady must have taken offense to the story or it was a really slow news day. Armed with her trusty cameraman she went out on Whyte Avenue and did street interviews on the controversy of the picture. She based this on receiving complaints. I didn't see the complainer interviewed. I have gone searching on Twitter and cannot find the complainer.
I think the picture was a little closer to the line than he had gone before.
I know myself I am at an MVC and am tempted to take pictures. But you have to be careful, a person could have been seriously hurt there. They could have
criminal charges against them. You could tweet something and a relation of the person could see it, unintentionally. So Social Media can be tricky. I am sure that the established media had it's growing pains. Publishing names of victims before the families were notified. They probably pushed the limit on gore etc.
But if you look deeper into this, Social Media and blogs and online news organizations i.e. Huffington Post and Gawker, are replacing the established media.
You can find out on Twitter real time what traffic is like. People are posting accidents etc. If a security guard decides to shoot his co-workers and rob the money, the story could be well developed on Twitter before the Real Media Professionals even get out of bed.
And now, the Fire Departments and Police have to be aware of cell phones. People are always trying to be the first, to win the 'Newshound' prize. They have their cameras going all the time. Twitter and Facebook spread the story.
In the US, even though it is not against the law in some states, the police are threatening the video makers. In Anaheim, California there has been an ongoing issue between the police who had short two unarmed men. The incidents were videoed and the police are alleged to have broken and confiscated phones. They have also gone door to door getting info on who could have videos and paying to get them. They have fired rubber bullets at women and children. Read more on this, there is the normal Anaheim and then Anaheim Hills (all the rich people and Mayor live in the Hills).
Social media is spreading this story and there is a Facebook group, when isn't there :)
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D1rBawz2q-C4%26feature%3Drelated&feature=related&v=1rBawz2q-C4&gl=CA
A cop friend of mine lead me to this story, I had not heard of it. But now it is gaining momentum.
Anyway, Constable Powers is taking a break. He has posted on twitter this. (see the text). I'll let him speak for himself. I respect his decision as does the management of the Police Service, btw they even supported the picture. It was a reporter with a deadline that didn't support the picture.
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