5-0 Alert

A police station might actually be one of the last places where I would expect to find artwork.  I mean, MAYBE I wouldn't be surprised by a mural that was done as a community service project by local youth or something, but not actual artwork.

Well, imagine how my interest was piqued today when I visited the MPD 2D station on Idaho Ave NW to print out the signs to reserve a parking spot for our shipping to container to live in for a few days while we load it up.  As I was waiting for the signs to print, I noticed this Acrostic framed above the computer, which compelled me to take a picture:

I'm not even going to attempt to deconstruct this poem.  And I don't need to because what really caught my eye was an even more interesting bit of wall hanging -- some photography of MPD officers entitled "walking their beat."  It was a picture of three officers in full uniform walking down the street.  The photograph was taken from behind, so they are walking away from the camera down a city street.  It seemed weird to me to have this picture of cops at work on the walls of the station....  Is it just me or is that weird?  It's like, how would I feel about having a picture of someone sitting at a cubicle typing away at a computer hanging up in my cubicle?  I would be horrified.

I don't know, but cops walking in threes on the street does not really exude the sense of safety and heroism that I think it was mean to evoke...I think it looks more menacing than anything.  I guess it just struck me as really odd to make the work of a police officer the subject matter for wall hangings in a police station.  I might expect something that celebrates the community and showcases people interacting or something like that, but something just felt off about these pieces -- and fairly comical as well.  

The idea of having art in such an institution as the police department is interesting to me, but not so much when the only purpose it serves is some form of propaganda that dramatizes the work of the police in such a way.