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While searching for Hate Man downtown, I stopped off to reminisce with Drayco, who was stabbed last year in a tree in People's Park. The stabber said it was more like some pokes, but Drayco left a lot of blood in the park. I know. I was there for five hours watching the cops label every drop. Drayco agrees he lost a lot of blood, even though he refused emergency room treatment until the next day when cops picked him up. He didn't want to upset the pitbull puppy that now looks like a mule. 

Drayco tells a blood-curdling tale of being invited up a tree by the treesitter where Drayco inadvertently broke off a tree branch and the treesitter "went off his nut," and tried to slash Drayco's throat with a paring knife--just as the police always said, but the treesitter felt so strongly about his own poking version he kept the matter alive in subsequent court actions. 

The guy sitting next to us, in Constitution Square at the downtown Bart station, was eyeball to eyeball with me. His eyes read psycho, and within minutes he had flopped on his back in the street, blocking traffic. 

The man then crossed the street and began masturbating, according to witnesses. I couldn't see it from across the street. A group of fifteen female Berkeley High students crossed the street to taunt and chortle over the man, admonishing him for his evil deed. Eventually two BPD squad cars, and a motorcycle showed up. Then, a fire engine and paramedic van. 

i was told by the cops to cease photographing the mentally ill man, and to leave them alone as they did their jobs. The accompanying photo hides what they called "the patient’s" face. I think the cops were right and deserve our respect for protecting the mentally ill from our curiosity--and hilarity. 

I have received reports that Constitution Square is fast becoming a major crime scene. 

According to Drayco, the whole scene is sick. "You can't see this shit anywhere, but Berkeley," he says, and Drayco, an elder street tramp has seen it all in his travels.