The Building/Belltown/Tue July 4/2:52 pm: Officer Pelich reports: "Officer Abed was dispatched to Clay Street and Western Avenue for an unknown man was climbing a ladder of a crane at a construction site. Upon my arrival I observed a BM [black maleâfrom this point on, I will identify the suspect as BM] climbing the crane ladder. The BM was approximately 25 feet from the top platform. The approximate height of the crane was 150 feet. I observed BM continue to climb the platform. Once BM reached the platform, he walked out to the edge of the crane boom. I talked to BM on the PA system of my patrol vehicle. I asked BM to come down from the crane. BM disregarded several of my commands.
"I continued to talk to BM until other city resources responded. The other resources included SFD medics and SFD High-Altitude Rescue Team. Sergeant Hazard, Officer Rice, and Officer Cook joined the High-Altitude Rescue Team at the top of the crane platform and successfully negotiated with BM. BM was taken into custody without incident.
"When I asked BM if he was trying to commit suicide, he stated, 'I just wanted to make a statement.'"
So many things to consider in this rich report. There's the BM's attempt to make a statement on the Fourth of July (was it, perhaps, an antiwar statement?); there's the BM's strong connection with Richard Wright's most famous literary invention, Bigger Thomas; there's the construction site of the The Parc condominium complex, which is rising in the middle of the condominium heaven that Belltown has become; there's the High-Altitude Rescue Team that saves the BM (downtown's current construction boomâ50 new towers over the next 10 yearsâwill certainly create more work for that brave department); and, of course, there's Officer Rice and Officer Cook. Let's consider the last item on this fascinating list.
I truly hopeâand I will believe in God and attend church service every Sunday from now on if this is in fact the caseâthat Officer Rice and Officer Cook are crime-fighting partners. With a clarity that is so real that it's simply cruel for it not to be real (please, God, let it be, let it be, LET IT BE), I can picture the two seasoned officers, Rice and Cook, patrolling the steaming streets in a squad car and commanding the respect of Seattle's underworld. Just for a minute, imagine a mob member warning his new associates (up from L.A. and ready to do business in C-town), "Whatever it is, don't mess with Rice and Cook. Those two can't be bribed. They fucking believe in the law and shit like that. If ya come across Rice and Cook, turn and walk the other way."
But we all know that reality is going to let us down, that Rice and Cook probably operate separate vehicles, probably don't like each other, probably spend more time thinking about their pensions than about how they can bring down the edifice of organized crime. Rarely is the real there for us dreamers.
