photo by kidcass
“Dear PoPville,
I was eating dinner outside Union Market tonight (Saturday) at the busy dinner hour and two people rolled through on bikes yelling “checkpoint!” at one point, just after a few cop cars had rolled by. Understandably, many people were shook and I saw several folks pack up and leave quickly. The problem was,
I never saw a checkpoint anywhere close by (I walked around to try and see) and never saw those cop cars again. Also, we were all obviously not driving cars so it was a little unclear what to do with the warning. It ended up just kind of taking the joy of a nice evening in a beautiful corner of our city and scaring people.
I understand why the bikers may have wanted to warn folks, especially those who have reason to fear the police and Feds right now. My only ask is whether there might be a better way to warn each other in situations like these. Maybe making it clear where the checkpoint is as a start (I would have gladly gone to protest it or others could then avoid that spot). If there are other best practices for working together as a community through this, would love to hear more!!”