This morning, back at the same intersection where I'd previously admired the dexterity and elan of a drug deal going down. Things are less calm this time; a black man is in handcuffs, standing next to a cop car. Another black man a short distance away is agitated, standing in the crosswalk in front of the bus I'd just exited. He is shouting something at the half-dozen cops, bike cops, downtown security guards, whatever. One is shouting back that he will be arrested if he doesn't get back on the sidewalk.

The man in handcuffs is calm but as I walk past he is being put in the backseat of the cop car and he says, "Why don't you just go ahead and shoot me like --". The last bit is cut off as his head disappears inside but obviously he is referring to a pair of controversial incidents in the last couple of years of the police shooting and killing unarmed black people during traffic stops. Hardly the same situation as I am witnessing and either this guy is bitter beyond discretion or is acting for the benefit of passers-by.