Lockdown Check

I was working at the desk when I heard someone screaming for their life outside.  The way in which he was screaming got me up from my chair after just a few seconds.  Loud monosyllable shouts at full lung capacity which repeated in quick repitition.  The police had a person pinned to the sidewalk down by the street.  A lot of police.  There was a food delivery bicycle just beside them with one of those big yellow thermal bags.  The young man was still fighting the police for a bit until shear force bearing down on him managed to calm him somewhat.  I was surprised to see a police officer without gloves stroking the man's head and speaking to him to try to keep him calm, while another two officers put cuffs on him. That speaks a lot to me about human compassion from those putting their lives most at risk even in times of Covid-19.  What a sight!  From my position I could only see one police car through the trees, but there were about eight officers.  So, I went to the front balcony to see what view it would afford. They had him on his feet now. The young man was of African origins and you could hear his thick accent from his rapid rants he was now offering to the group of officers surrounding him.  Several other residents along the street were also out on their balconies to observe the raucous.  It took me a bit, but I then saw down the road in the opposite direction that the police had set up a check point of the cars passing by to check that the people in transit had valid reasons for being out.  Looking down now I saw that there were indeed three patrol cars peeking through the trees.  I have seen a lot of people recently out in the park below with and without their dog and people out running along the sidewalks - alone and together.  The traffic is also increasing quite a bit, especially around the classic morning and evening rush hours.  The current expectation is to begin to reopen the lockdown after May 3rd.

So, I don't know why the police stopped the bike delivery man.  Possibly he wasn't wearing his mask at the moment he passed by them?  The officers moved him off to a corner by the wall and another looked through his delivery bag.  They obviously suspected something probably by his behaviour, but then I didn't see when or why they had stopped him.  A few minutes later they put him into a patrol car and out of my view.  So I resumed watching the traffic go by and made this photo of the police stopping cars at random.  I saw they were also checking and questioning pedestrians.  Interesting, when zoomed into the photo I see the driver of the car also wearing masks.  The car the police have stopped has two people in the front.  So that is probably a no-no.

After about an half hour some of the patrol cars moved on and I noticed the bike delivery guy was back out on the street and again very verbal with the officers. The sun was lower on the horizon and the man was now in the shade.  After a bit I realized he was without shoes, pants and underwear!  They had made a strip search of him?  A few more minutes passsed before they finally left him to himself.  Again, what a sight!  He stood their with only a t-shirt standing on the sidewalk yelling verbal obscenities at full force to the police officers as they drove off and he didn't stop yelling for quite a while.  He began to collect quite a group of other bike delivery guys and pedestrians as he slowly began to put his situation together, get dressed and share his story with anyone who would listen to him...

I don't know what to make of it.  I wish I knew why they had stopped him and why he had responded in such a manner that he had to be constrained to the ground.

We are still sitting through this lockdown. I have been in a funk for the past several days. In an attempt to turn my mood, I gave myself a haircut this morning!  I remembered I have a very old and cheap trimmer.  I enlisted the help of Mrs C for the back.  So I don't know how that part looks.  I am more or less satisfied with the rest.  Given my relative success, I cut Mr JC's hair too.  Other than being a 5 year old wiggly worm, his turned out pretty well!  I don't know if the trimmer will last for another round, the motor sounds like it is about done.  lol

Life here in Italy goes on. The numbers have been trending downwards over the past several days, but they are still big numbers.  Today the numbers jumped up a bit.  Thankfully the number of people in ICU is still coming down.  So if I interpret the information, I would assume that either the virus is less viral at this time with warmer weather, and/or we are getting better at treating the virus?  From what I hear, the mortality rate of people who require to be placed on respirators is still very high.  The reality of life to come is beginning to sink in.

I still can't fathom Trumps ongoing actions in the USA.  If Italy is any lesson, I don't see them being able to come out of the pandemic anytime  soon.  I learned of a friend from college who contracted the virus in Virginia and nearly lost his life. A strong healthy person of my age.  I am thankful to receive a short text from him after I reached out to say hello.  Amazing how many people I can count either through direct relationships or indirectly who have been affected by this virus.

Stay safe. Stay strong.