My brush with the Santa Clara PD

The evening at PnP was fun. I had met some interesting people, enjoyed the Pizza, and was looking forward to a long bus ride home. Had been a long day and was kinda exhausted.

It was pretty cold waiting at the bus-stop, and the wooden bench didn't look too appealing.. so I sat down on top of the backrest, with my feet on the bench. A few minutes later a Hispanic dude came over, and sat next to me in the same manner. I learned from him that the black thing he was wearing was a durag. He inquired if I knew when the next bus arrived, and I told him that it would be another 10mins. So he called his gf telling her how long it would be before he got home. Then this third guy came over.. he was badly sluggish. We were all waiting for this lone bus to arrive and just waited at the bus-stop watching the cars go by.

Suddenly I noticed this Santa Clara PD car park about 30 feet away from us. Its blue-red flashers came on and two cops jumped out. Killing time was painful, so this new development was kinda cool. I wondered if there was some trouble in the apartment behind us. But these cops came straight towards us. They just started yelling 'Put your hands up'. Ok, they were definitely targeting us. I did as asked, still clueless about what's going on.

As they came closer they kept yelling the same instructions.. probably the other guys hadn't obeyed. I wasn't sure as I was just looking at the cop who was coming towards me. He yelled 'Get down from the bench and sit down'. I did that, and so did the Hispanic bloke who had been sitting next to me. The cop berated us for putting our feet on the bench. I wondered 'Why the yelling?'

Then he yelled to me 'Is that bag yours?' Still clueless about what was going on, I said yes, as I drew my carelessly tossed bag closer. The cop asked us for id. I reached for my wallet and began opening it, and noticed that the cop was no longer interested. He now directed his attention at the Hispanic guy. Meanwhile, I spotted my bus arriving, and casually inquired if I could get on it. The cop said 'You can go'. As I ran towards my bus, which had stopped behind the Police car, I watched the second cop tie the sluggish guy's hands behind his back. The cop was yelling something at him while the guy protested mildly.

I don't know what happened to the Hispanic guy but neither of them got on the bus with me. I still have no clue what this was about. I think I was let go because I was dressed in formals, obeyed as directed, and had id.

As I sat in the bus headed home I pondered how the scene would have unfolded differently had I responded with the memorable line from Basic Instict: 'What are you gonna do, arrest me?'