I’ve noticed quite a few traffic cops at intersections around L.A. lately.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: AL SEIB / LOS ANGELES TIMES
The interesting thing about this phenomenon is that the traffic lights are in perfectly good condition, while they just stand there, waving this-a-way and that-a-way. Today I even saw two at one intersection; one stood on the corner and watched while the other directed. It begs the question: why are cops being given traffic duties when things like random killings by one of their own are going on around here? Perhaps these officers are suspended or demoted for unacceptable behavior? We don’t have stop-and-frisk here in L.A., so I’d assume that the corruption isn’t that visible and palpable by the community…but I don’t know, because I’m not really out there in the streets like that.
I dunno, it just seems a bit extraneous if you ask me…it’s like…hmm. I actually can’t think of an analogy to manually directing traffic in an intersection with working traffic lights. Can you?
