Friday, August 21, 2009

Seeing Birds and Fort Worth Mounted Policewomen

For weeks now I have been seeing Fort Worth Mounted Policewomen patrolling my neighborhood. I did not get a good photo opportunity until today.

Usually it is a solo cop on her steed that I see, a few times it has been a pair of lady mounted cops.

I have no idea what the purpose of doing this is. I see where they park the big horse trailer the horses are hauled in. Keeping horses is expensive. I know this from personal experience. Fort Worth has a lot of budget woes. The city cut back on library hours. Yet can somehow pay for horsebound cops.

I came upon the Mounted Policewoman today at a stoplight on Woodhaven Boulevard. The horse had the right of way. This gave me an opportunity to get out my camera. That is the picture to the right, taken as she slowly ambled down the street.

The cop and the horse presented a bit of a road hazard, walking slowly, basically blocking a lane. I think I mentioned, previously, that in recent times I was stopped by one of the Fort Worth Gestapo, because I was driving too slow in a quiet residential neighborhood and did not have my seatbelt on.

Well, the Fort Worth Mounted Policewoman was moving slow, on a busy street, not a quiet residential neighborhood. The Policewoman was not wearing a seatbelt. Or a helmet. I know a citizen can make a citizen's arrest. Can a citizen give a cop a citizen's ticket?

To take the picture at the top, I'd passed the mounted cop and looped back around her to take that picture, as she took a left, without signaling, nearly having a head-on collision, clearly illustrated in the photo. I was appalled at the disdain for public safety so wantonly on display.

After I was finished with photo documenting this latest Fort Worth police outrageous behavior I continued on my way to Oakland Lake Park to partake in some high humidity hiking. The temperate was a very pleasant low 80s, but this morning's rain had amped up the humidity.

There are a lot of waterfowl on Oakland Lake. Ducks and geese and others alien to me. People have fun feeding the birds. The birds get used to getting fed. Today I stopped to look at the birds and the pair in the picture were sure I was going to feed them something. They made a bee-line towards me. As I got out the camera, apologizing to them for my lack of food, they figured out I was not reaching in my pocket for food and turned their backs on me and waddled away, making scornful noises as they waddled. I'll try and remember to bring them something to eat next time I visit their home.

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