>Law enforcement has always been capricious, and probably always will be.
>For one thing, it requires that an officer witness the "event."
while walking down 46th between chestnut and walnut one evening, i saw a man on a porch start to yell at a couple walking about half a block in front of me. (something along the lines of "your girlfriend is very ugly.") he continued taunting them, got off of his porch, follwing and shouting at them and when they got to the parking lot of the gas station on chestnut, the woman turned around and yelled something back at this man. at which point, he produced a knife and attacked them. i was certian i was about to see two people stabbed when a philly police car screeched into the parking lot. the man with the knife handed it a woman with a baby who had suddenly appeared and she ran off with it. i spoke to the police officer, (who had just been passing by and saw a crowd starting to form) who said he didn't see a knife so, despite my offer to appear as a witness, couldn't do anything. he advised the couple not to walk down that street anymore.
