Police Academy

Gabe and I had lunch at the Police Academy cafe Thursday. I had clam chowder soup. Gabe ordered chili fries. As expected I saw a lot of cops there. The waitresses had great smiles. Still the food seemed pretty ordinary. The best thing that could be said for it was that service was fine and the fries (once you scraped off the bean-heavy chili) were really crispy.

The food bothered me less than the academy's run-down appearance. It reminded of a training facility in some small South American country. I saw a lot of un-swept leaves, un-plastered cracks, litter and  decay. Despite the police cadets doing calisthenics or practicing on the firing range, the place almost seemed abandoned. I felt sorry for the police trainees. It was as if the city was throwing them into a war more or less unarmed--like the Royal Air Force sending sending out novice pilots in the Battle of Britain to go fight the Luftwaffe.