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When Boston Market opened in what had been a Red Robin on Capitol Hill's Olive Way, they hung a plaque by the door, dedicating the restaurant to the survivors of breast cancer. The dedication struck me as odd, since much of what Boston Market served (pork, beef, and chicken) was carcinogenic. Anyway, when Boston Market went tits up and closed their Olive Way location, the plaque remained, the empty building standing as a monument to the survivors of breast cancer everywhere. Recently, a Starbucks opened in the old Boston Market/Red Robin building, and when I walked by the other day I noticed that the plaque was gone.

Who made the decision to remove the plaque? What happened to it? I called Starbucks' corporate offices and left messages for Sonia Gould, Starbucks' media relations maven, but she never called me back. So I called the Olive Way Starbucks and spoke with Lea, a barista, who's been with Starbucks for three years.

There used to be a plaque on the building you work in, Lea, dedicating Boston Market to the survivors of breast cancer.

Really? That's weird. Why would they dedicate a restaurant to breast cancer?

I don't know. The plaque is gone now, Lea. What happened to the plaque?

You know, I don't know, I really don't.

Did it get thrown in the trash?

I hope not! That would be horrible! Now I'm curious to know what happened. You should call corporate headquarters, I think.

I tried that and no one called me back. Are any Starbucks locations dedicated to the sufferers of specific diseases?

I can say probably not.

Any chance the new Olive Way Starbucks could be dedicated to, say, the survivors of lupus or flesh-eating bacteria?

You know, I don't have any control over that. I can certainly think about it, but I don't have authority to officially dedicate this place to anyone.

Are you personally opposed to breast cancer, Lea?

I am. It's personal in my life as well as other people's. It's been in my family, and it's something I'm concerned about.

Is Starbucks opposed to breast cancer?

I don't know that Starbucks as a corporation can be "opposed" to any disease. But it's a horrible thing, and I'm sure no one at Starbucks would wish it on anyone.

The Seattle Police Department arrested SeaTac resident Kevin Cruz last week for the shooting deaths of two men at the Northlake Shipyard last November. Despite an exhaustive search, Seattle police failed to find Cruz's backpack -- which contained the murder weapon -- discarded in Gasworks Park less than a block from the scene of the crime. Not until a passerby spotted the backpack were police able to make an arrest. My dad was a Chicago homicide detective for 20 years. I called to get his perspective on the SPD's handling of this investigation.
So, Dad, the police went over the area with a fine-toothed comb and somehow missed this backpack. Did they fuck up?

I don't know the ground there; I don't know what kind of a search the Seattle police conducted in terms of going through garbage cans and looking under bushes. And there's no way of knowing how long that backpack was there. Maybe that backpack wasn't there during the search; it could have been there two hours before that passerby found it. Until the suspect tells you when and where he dropped the backpack, you have no way of knowing that the police overlooked it during their search.

Is it common for a murder suspect to return to the scene of the crime weeks later and dispose of the murder weapon?

No, it's not. So, yeah, I would assume the backpack has been there for a while, but I don't know how your police department conducted their ground search, so I don't want to criticize. But if a murder weapon is somewhere within four blocks of the crime scene, well, I would suggest that a good expanding area search, block by block, should have recovered the murder weapon sooner.

Did you ever overlook a murder weapon at a crime scene?

I've done those kind of searches, and sure, you miss stuff. You look in yards, under bushes, in trees, on rooftops, and you could miss something in a heartbeat. Cops are human. Then a jogger or a biker comes along and finds something you missed. That's quite often how we turn cases. You exhaust your leads, and something just turns up weeks, months, and sometimes years later. It's not like TV, you know.

COP TALK

by Dan Savage