NCOD Followup & 16

Friday, Oct. 12, 2007 - 8:41 a.m.

The San Francisco Bay Area is known for its killer commutes, but this is ridiculous:

(excerpt) Investigators were asking for the public's help after a body was found on Interstate 880 in the San Francisco Bay Area on Thursday morning.

The body was discovered in the roadway between West A Street and West Winton Avenue and forced the closure of all southbound lanes while authorities investigated the incident, the California Highway Patrol reported. . . . Parts of the man's body were strewn across hundreds of yards of roadway.

"Any time you have a body and it's on the freeway or the side of the road, you have to treat it as a homicide, (unless) it becomes readily apparent that it's not that," Alameda County Sheriff's Department Sgt. J.D. Nelson said.

Another possibility is that a vehicle fatally struck the person, according to Nelson. "(But) you'd think you'd have a car somewhere that stopped," Nelson said. "If not, it's a hit-and-run." Traffic was extremely heavy in the area, and drivers were diverted to Interstate Highway 580 via the West A Street exit and, CHP Officer Chris Nave said.

Police said if the man were hit by a semi-truck at full speed, it is possible the driver would not know he struck something. The CHP is asking drivers to call them if they noticed anything out of the ordinary while driving in the area Thursday morning.

Ick.

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Okay, I'm going to do something I haven't done in a long time.

I'm going to completely reverse my position about something I've written.

Yesterday, I received a really cool and really considered off-the-air response from Toren Smith, and bless him, he gave me permission to share.

I rarely comment on your blog entries, I know, but I had to address this:

From yesterday:
The police department in the City and County of San Francisco keeps announcing that it is going to crack down on people who are partying outside in the Castro District, and that they are going to also apply pressure to businesses in that district to close their doors on the night of October 31st. Specifically, they are going to go and visit any business that a liquor license and make absoutely sure that every required piece of paper is in existence at the establishments in question. The Castro District is populated predominantly by homosexuals, and no other districts in San Francisco are being pressured to Quiet Down and Behave Themselves.

The reason they are concentrating their efforts in the Castro is because it's a gay Halloween Party that takes place in the Castro. I'm surprised you didn't know this. Also, it has become a complete animal act. A guy was pushed through a plate glass window last year and almost died because there was no way for the paramedics to reach him through the crowd, which is a solid mass. Tomoko [Toren's wife] used to go but two years ago she came back early and swore she'd never go again. She was actually in fear of her life.

Frank Robinson told me a couple of years ago that the many of the businesses along the street have complained (yes, gay-owned ones) and of course the residents are not too happy at being prisoners in their homes for a day, either. It's just gotten too big and out of control for the space available. It's not like Mardi Gras where they have 12 blocks to spread things out and 100 years of practise at dealing with it.

Anyway, just thought you should know is this isn't some sort of random gay-bashing thing. Besides, can you really imagine the SF City Council targeting gays? Houston, maybe. But not SF.
That's all.
--Toren

I wrote back to him, and he quoted it thusly:

(Me): I predict that the declarations by the police are going to make the danger levels exponentially worse in that neighborhood, because their open declaration that This Problem Needs To Be Addressed will seem offensive.

Toren: If I was the cops, I'd be tempted to say: "Okay, you police it yourselves then!" But of course if anything bad happened, there would be bitching and whining about how the cops "abandoned" the gays. Frankly, this is now a "have you stopped beating your wife" situation. No matter what is done and what happens, the cops will be blamed.

There's been complaining about the paramedics, too. However, I happen to know one who was caught up in the situation--he's my scuba instructor--and he's the most honest, decent person you could ask to meet. But hearing him telling me about how he was struggling to get through the crowd while people yanked on his bag and groped his ass, despite the fact he kept yelling he was trying to help someone and would they please get out of his way, was pretty annoying.

(Me): I *do* know why the police have to act, honest. And I do remember the problems. But unfortunately I also think that because the gay community is being specifically addressed about it, the gay community is going to react as if it's been targeted.

Toren: OF COURSE the gay community is being "targeted"...! It's a GAY-started celebration, held in a GAY community! Are the cops supposed to go "target" some non-existent massive Halloween street party in Bernal Heights? Geez! Why are people so stupid?

This reminds me of how, for some black people, anything bad that ever happens to them is because of "racism." Yeah, right...god knows all whites skate through life never knowing the slightest inconvenience.

Of course a large percentage of the attendees are now straight, but from what I'm told it's still majority gay. They fly in from all over for this.

And verily I say, twas an excellent exchange of ideas which I thunk merited a special look, so here it is.

I hope with all of my heart that I'm wrong about my prediction of trouble on Halloween Night in the Castro.

It's being played to the public as if a porgrom is about to take place, and I based yesterday's post on the Bay Area media sources that I usually trust.

I made a mistake. Because, you see, friends -- despite my digging, I wasn't able to find any story about the issue which admitted how the emergency personnel were treated.

Mea maxima culpa.

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And finally -- today is my sixteenth wedding anniversary.

Of course I've awakened and discovered that it's raining like a cow pissing on a flat rock, on one of the days we usually eat lunch together downtown, so that bus ride plus the effect the rain has on my hair will give John something interesting to look at by the time I get there.

John, since they don't make anniversary cards that actually say "Thanks for not killing me before now", I've said it here instead.

I love you!

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Have a good Thursday.

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