Race and Arrowheads/Pioneer Square/Sat June 17/11:06 am: Officer Sideris reports: "We arrived and walked up the front entrance. A white male was standing in front of the door and getting ready to walk away. Officer Toth was the first officer to approach him. He said, 'Seattle Police, stop, we need to talk to you.' The white male ignored Officer Toth's instruction and continued to walk away. We then approached him and tried to prevent him from leaving the scene. The white male turned and started waving his arms. He then turned toward Officer Toth and punched him in the mouth. He resisted arrest while we were trying to place him into custody. We eventually placed him into custody."

A man punched an officer in the mouth and is still alive to talk about it? Some of my readers are certainly thinking: "If he had been a brother, then he would be a dead brother now." But to those readers—those who think the cops would have capped the suspect quick if he had been a brother—other readers of this report might ask: "What if Officer Toth is black?" If that were the case, if Toth is black, it would instantly transfer the racism from the police officer to the suspect. The suspect can now be read as the racist because his insubordination, his refusal to follow the black officer's orders shows he has no respect for black authority. If the officer who told him to stop had been white, he would have stopped right then and there. The white suspect recognizes white authority; as for black authority, the white suspect has nothing to offer it but a punch in the face.

Officer Sideris's report, however, does not end with the white suspect "eventually [being placed] into custody"; it has this continuation: "The store manager said [to us after the arrest was made] that the suspect was in the store [Elliott Bay Book Company] with a skateboard. He was grabbing books from shelves and putting them back. His fingers were dirty and so he was leaving black marks. He grabbed one particular book, opened it, looked through a few pages, and closed it. His fingers left marks on several pages. The book cost $8 and could not be sold after the damage. The suspect was also scaring customers and seemed aggressive to staff. When he was told to pay for the damaged book, he refused. After screaming at the staff, he left the store."

The book the suspect damaged with his dirty little fingers, Arrowheads & Projectile Points, is reputed to be a great introduction to "prehistoric Amerindian projectile points and arrowheads." Although written for beginners, it's also useful for advanced collectors of ancient arrowheads, as it not only contains lots of photos but is packed with information about the preservation, regional classification, and chipping techniques of hunting tools made by people who lived in the land before time.