Had uncomfortable police contact yesterday for the first time in a long while. Had pulled over on the side of the road in order to watch sunset and take pictures with a friend. Apparently, the road was on US Coast Guard Property. I didn’t know this. Two SFPD showed up.

They yelled at me from afar but it was windy and I couldn’t hear them. They screamed/asked if it was my car and I said I, “Yes”. “We’re going to tow it”, one said. So my friend and I hastily grabbed my camera gear and walked up to them and toward my car.

As we approached, it became clear that one officer was trying to start a fight with me. Over and over again he tried to aggravate me into saying stupid - eventually telling me that I must be willing to drive my car over children if I truly wasn’t able to see the USCG sign.

How did I find this spot? Why am I here? Where did I come from? Didn’t I know that people robbed at gunpoint here for their camera equipment? On and on this went. I eventually had to ignore the officer yelling all the absurdities and just focus on the other one who was more calm.

I stayed calm externally - but inside I was far from calm. My lengthy history with cops was just waiting for everything to go sideways. I just continued to repeat that I didn’t know this was government property and that I would leave.

One cop said “okay” while the angry one just kept barking at me. I ignored him and my friend and I walked toward my car. As we walked away, we heard one of them say, “Well, they didn’t seem nervous”.

I was nervous, but I didn’t display it. Is that what their whole point is? To make me afraid of them? To get me to do or say something stupid? I can’t help but think that this is a game for them - that they drive around seeing who they can get a rise out of.

And I wasn’t nervous because I felt I was doing anything wrong. I was nervous because I was dealing with an armed man who was clearly unstable.

And this had me thinking: what do cops see lack of nervousness as an indicator for? Is it that I wasn’t doing anything wrong? Or that I am comfortable doing something wrong? Or is it that people with lots of police history aren’t as intimidated by them?

I should point out that, through all of this, my friend and I were standing there holding camera lenses and tripods. Like, it was pretty obvious we weren’t up to anything nefarious.

On the way out, I looked for the sign. It didn’t say private property. There was an agglomeration of road construction pylons / barricades and one of them had a sign that said, “USCG Traffic”. Even if I’d seen it ahead of time, I’m not sure I would’ve thought I was trespassing.

And anyone who’s been to Treasure Island lately knows that darn near the entire island is under construction. There are fences and road barricades and construction pylons along more than half the islands’ perimeter roads. There’s nothing unique about another pile of them.

This is what I was taking a picture of. I didn’t get the photo I wanted because I was waiting for sundown over the bridge. Oh well.

I did get this one about 20 minutes after the cop incident. It really is a beautiful place.