Human Chess Tournament, Photo One (Police Presence On The Block)

Photo by John Hoff

Yesterday, HACC Chairman Peter Teachout convinced me to come over because he needed help with the lifting of a large grill for the Art FLOW "human chess tournament" event held at 2nd Street N. and W. Broadway, across from the old Johnny A's bar...

I hadn't planned on attending the event, though cheery Connie Nompelis tried to convince me by email. I said a bunch of stick-in-the-mud stuff about how crack heads would be frolicking around in the neighborhood while people looked at art, and how "if you've seen one rusty saw blade painted with a rustic rural scene, you've seen them all."

But Peter told me he needed help lifting the over-sized grill, and so I rolled over, warning Peter I'd have to leave early because I had a blind date lined up through an internet dating site, and we were meeting at the Kitty Cat Club at 6 p.m. (The name of the establishment sounds so much naughtier than the bar, grill and music venue actually is)

While I was parked, waiting for Peter to emerge from his house so we could fetch the grill, the young woman in the picture got behind my van and started adjusting her skirt to show the maximum amount of leg.

"Oh, good grief, another prostitute," I thought.

I got my phone out, ready to dial 911 as she began strolling up 6th Street North. But I didn't need to call because a police car suddenly pulled up. The officer detained the woman was well as a young guy who appeared to be her pimp. The officer asked her business in the neighborhood, and she didn't really have a convincing or definite answer. Somebody had dropped her off and would pick her up.

Right as I was getting ready to leave and follow Peter, I snapped this picture, above. The young man was not happy.

"Hey, he took my picture!" he objected.

In the last few days I've been talking to Peter about being more aggressive with a camera and documenting the faces of the individuals lurking around to do bad things on the block, slapping that stuff up all over the internet.

Don't want your picture on this blog with a pithy, accusatory story attached? Stay the (expletive) away from my block with your prostitution and drug dealing.

Later, Peter told me he recognized the girl "wearing half a skirt." She had been a major prostitution player on the block a couple years ago, but hadn't been around for a while. Unfortunately, my camera wasn't set to "telephoto," so this picture doesn't show as much detail as it could...but, then again, maybe that's a good thing.