The Brenton Memorial

Yesterday, I was walking to the QFC to buy burrito supplies and I started noticing all these cops around. They had brought their equipment with them. There were cop cars, cops motorcycles and even cop buses. Then I remembered that there was a big memorial service at Key Arena for the SPD officer who was shot and killed on Halloween. Yeah, that was really bad. I mean, I might have my issues with the cops and their community policing in Belltown, but jeez, nobody deserves to meet their end like that. Who can be so angry at the police that they'd just walk up to somebody they've never met and start shooting? Yeah, I can't even imagine it. I'm really sorry that Officer Brenton got done like that.

I was really surprised to see such a huge turnout from around the state and from British Columbia. From where I was walking, it actually looked like there was a bigger turnout from BC than from the US. This is just one contingent of our Canadian friends:

Mounties! It's a shame that the occasion was so dour. It would be cool if mounties visited every week! There were also legions of other police from BC. So many in fact that yesterday probably would have been a really good day to go on a crime spree in Vancouver. It didn't happen, so it's nice that Canada's criminals didn't notice that much of their police force was down here. Anyhow, it was kind of nice to witness the solidarity. It's just too bad that it can only be displayed whenever some poor guy gets killed.

And that's what I saw on my way to the store.