wow. now that you mention it, i notice that they are EVERYWHERE in downtown oakland.

i wonder if it's a facade to make it look like more people are watching the area.

i say facade because they hardly look capable to handle a "situation". first, they'd need to put down the coffee cups, bagel, etc. and then there's that whole awareness thing...seems unlikely if you're engrossed in chit chat.

anyone know who the blue rent-a-cops are?

Funny you should mention this atom, I finally pulled my head out of my ass and asked one a while ago, just haven't been on tribe in a while. There's an association of businesses/companies in the uptown/lake merritt/downtown area that pays their salary.

It's just creepy. They have "interns" now, too, who wear shirts that actually say Intern (and something else, I don't remember) on the back. I've seen them cleaning up trash and the grates around trees on the sidewalks, etc.

I'm sure it's an attempt at keeping out the "riff-raff" and trying to make Oakland look a bit more presentable, and I'm sure there's a much better way those resources could be spent, seeing as how keeping out the riff-raff just means they go somewhere else and results in high-crime pockets. Doesn't address the root of the problem but at least the Suits in uptown get to feel a little safer.

At least it's not Blackwater...