Just a little incident of interest for no particularly reason

 

Just a little incident that I found "interesting" for no particular reason other than it was subject to speculation. It isn’t like nothing of slight interest happens on certain streets of Seattle in the wee-hours of the morning, it just seems that closer to the bay and south of Pine Street you go, the worse things look, with lots of boarded-up store fronts and people with seemingly nothing to do just hanging out and venting their frustrations on their personal existences in ways that should be left alone.

Outside the office building I work in, where I am often the only person inside, there is the constant presence of people for whom if they are not exchanging insults occasionally leading to “resolutions” via fists or feet, or “normal” people making the mistake of carrying on “normal” conversations with people not so “normal” and getting their noses bloodied for their trouble, or people asking for money for a “coffee” outside the 7-Eleven, or if they can’t get it, go inside and steal it before an employee can stop them.

Of course it would be wrong to assume that it is “unsafe” at all hours of the day; the building has a security guard on duty during the time tenants are present, so that they feel “safe. I suspect that most of them do not want to appear “insensitive” to the “plight” of those hanging outside, and for the most part the following activities are only conducted when everything is “quiet” and dark--and no police are around (which is almost all of the time):

 

 

 

Maybe a street corner "pharmacy" at "popular prices"? I suppose what is going in these images are a matter of interpretation and eyesight, but they are going on in plain sight. Now, what I saw happening last Thursday was subject to considerable “interpretation.” I observed red lights blinking from both sides of a corner of the building; peeking out the widows, I noted on one side a first aid fire department vehicle, and on the other side an ambulance. On the ambulance side I observed this:

 

 

What was going on I at first was completely stupefied. Here was this individual surrounded by four people, two from the ambulance and two from fire department. Now, was he trying to convince them that he was ill enough to be taken to the hospital? Was he trying to explain to them that someone had made a mistake (maybe the police or the fire medical aid personnel) and he wasn’t the one who needed assistance? Or were they truing to convince him he needed to go to the hospital, or a detox cell? And if so, why? This man appeared to be "normal."

Here, one of the ambulance personnel appears to be trying to convince the man that there was something adverse with him that required  that he comply with their instructions:

 

 

This “discussion” continued for 15 minutes, before the subject decided to sit down…

 

…although it appeared only to appease his persecutors, as he resisted efforts to force him to put his legs on the stretcher. Apparently the man was informed that police would arrive at any time, and it was a matter if he preferred to spend time in a jail cell or wherever they planned on taking him; this eventually convinced the man to put his legs on the stretcher, which he was bound to with straps…

 

 

…and then loaded into the ambulance:

 

 

Again, I don’t have a real “clue” about what was going on here; I don’t even care as long as nobody is armed and dangerous. Unfortunately, as I pointed out in my last post and others, it is the unfortunate truth that  sometimes "escape" is not always possible when such behavior is to be "tolerated" in one place but not in another where the people have the "ear" of city government officials.

By the way, I've noticed that my blog has much more "interest" outside this country than inside it (although the Singapore and Hong Kong "hits" are probably all bots), which I suppose only proves just how unfavorably many in the world think of how this country, the alleged "beacon" of democracy, is about to shift to far-right fascist authoritarianism.