Comments on the World at Large: Journey to St. Louis

Last month we drove out to St. Louis, Missouri, for a conference. Here are the photo highlights.

The Adams Mark hotel is right at the St. Louis arch:

And right next to the capitol building:

They had their flags at half-mast for the Virginia Tech students:

This is our exhibit booth at the conference:

The hotel had an incredible piece of sculpture in the lobby (which reminded me of the "Necrid Horseman" horse in GuildWars Prophecies):

The last night we were in St. Louis, there was a "police incident" right outside our hotel window. What I heard was 3 gunshots moving past our window, and then some rapid fire. I had leapt out of bed, grabbed my camera, and rushed to the window. Shortly thereafter a whole bunch (I counted 25) of police vehicles arrived in the area. Next morning the news said that a black sedan with two men in it had rammed a police cruiser and then opened fire on the policeman (who was injured in the crash). The men then got out of their car and ran, and the policeman shot and killed one of them, while the other got away. At the time, I thought I maybe heard the crash after the gunfire, but whatever. I thought it was interesting that every female cop who showed up was armed with a machine gun or a shotgun.

Here are some of the cops taking off their patrol uniforms and putting on their black assault team gear (in the street, striping down to skin), and just a few of the vehicles lining the alley (the man was killed just around the corner to the left up there):

The swat guys cleared the parking garage roof and insides several times before returning to their cars and changing back into patrol uniforms. Then they debriefed, and the crime scene folks showed up. This one security guard from up the block found a shell casing and is showing it to the crime scene investigator.