in the past few years... ive walked many streets... in many cities... my size... my attitude... my experience... allow me to feel relatively safe... in environments that feel dangerous to many... ive also somehow developed... something that i can not explain... for lack of a better word... i will call it... energy... i dont know if it is intuition... or instinct... or simply my peripheral senses becoming more attuned... but... i know when it triggers... and ive learned to trust it... sometimes... it is positive... finding someone in a room full of people... someone i want to share some time with... sometimes... it is negative... a sense of danger... to be aware of... before it materializes... today... it was negative... ive been pretty much heads down working the past few days... today... i needed a walk... and, i needed some cash... a trip to Xoom... the long holiday weekend... ended... the streets... busier than normal... i picked up pesos... north of the obilisque... Libertad y Santa Fe... taking my normal walk back to the subte... passing Teatro Colon... a walk ive done many, many times... the sudden attack of negative energy... surprising me... immediately aware... searching for its source... passing Teatro Tango... before i found its source... a line of 50 or so riot police... in full riot gear... plastic shield resting in front of each... lining the sidewalk... 20 or more armored vehicles on the street behind them... a passive force... waiting... i continued my walk south on 9 de Julio... approaching the Obilisque... a crowd of maybe a hundred... preparing for a street demonstration... something that ive come to view as somehow normal... setting up a light barricade... marking their space... more than establishing an effective perimeter... wondering... if they were aware... of the danger id just passed... crossing 9 de Julio... not a minor task... at 16 lanes... heading for my subte stop... seeing another line of paramilitary... same equipment... in formation behind the coming rally... clearly... a much more effective perimeter... for some reason... i abandoned my subte plans... choosing to walk instead... my sense of negative energy not abating... continuing south on 9 de Julio... noticing the police presence... not the normal, jaded middle-aged officer... that you normally find every couple of blocks... whos presence is typically more of a reminder... than a deterrent... today... on every corner... early-thirty year old professionals... always in groups of three... a team not to be taken lightly... aware of each group... aware that each man had made contact with me... scanned me... and dismissed me as unimportant... passing Ave de Mayo... before this presence subsided... seeing the first of the normal, single, middle-aged police presence again... at Belgrano... my adrenalin level beginning to subside... the threat level weakening... as i turned left onto Mexico... the thought occurring to me... that i had instinctively abandoned the subte... wanting to walk... so that i could clearly see any impending danger... and, to not be confined in a small space... my senses protecting me... with the flexibility of open space... walking the last few blocks... thinking... this was not the trigger of the petty thief... or the pickpocket... the threats ive been aware of many times... here in Buenos Aires... in Malate... in Hong Kong... in the LA and NY... in many cities... this... was true danger... this was not an amateur... looking for a short cut to make a few dollars... this group... did not see the people... if they acted... it would be swift... and effective... and... indiscriminate... they would not only quash any problem... they would leave a message to all who became aware of their actions... my hope is that this force remains leashed... at least for another day... stay safe my friends... there is true danger on the streets today...
Posted on: Mon, 21 Apr 2014 15:08:23 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015