The bloody sidewalk. Ouch. The scene on Niles. A good punch in the mouth or nose broke a lip or a nostril and the poor person dripped all over the sidewalk. The cop said it was nothing. It was worth something, though, because he was photographing it. I decided to do the same. If it's good enough for HPD, it's good enough for the web.

by Ken Krayeske
11/30/06 11:45 pm
Hartford, CT

Ten P.M. Thursday. The silent siren lights attracted me like a moth to a flame. The fact that a cop car blocked the west side of Niles and Laurel made me want to bike further up to investigate.

Yellow crime scene taped severed Niles behind West Middle school. I overhead a cop talk to a man trying to gain entry to an apartment building temporarily behind the police line.

Another man and woman were concerned about trying to leave their driveway. I asked the officer what happened.

Nothing, he said.

But it's a public thoroughfare, I'd like to know.

Call the police department, he responded.

Oh, like Nancy Mulroy's going to help me? I asked.

Look in the paper tomorrow, he said.

Great. More useless commands. I live a block away, just curious if they caught the bad guy. Not a chance.

I biked up to the spot, and a police evidence photographer is snapping away at blood, the half-eaten bag of cheesy poofs and the white clothing strewn across part of the sidewalk.

The officer with the camera said it was an assault, and had no other information.

Whoever it was, their head hurts right now.

I pedaled to Sigourney, past another six or seven cop cars blocking that entrance to Laurel Street.

And as I biked through the empty streets, I thought that when the civil disobedients who protest the war pour their blood in front of Joe Lieberman's office at 100 Constitution Plaza, the police evacuate the building and cordon off the sidewalk because the blood is considered a hazardous material. Men in white suits come to scrub the area clean.

So when I finished my bike ride and returned an hour later, I found the cops gone, and this stain on the sidewalk across from West Middle and next to the Knox Parks Community Garden.

So, are there two standards for bloodshed on sidewalks in Hartford? Is it a hazmat, or just detritus from unstoppable violence?

It isn't the first time I've seen cops leave bodily fluids on the sidewalk. And it matches the used condom I saw in my neighbor's front yard this morning.

*h/t to Peter Barr for the headline.

11/30/06

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"The officer said it was an assault, and offered no additional details. "

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"The officer said it was an assault, and offered no additional details. "