I’ve watched cops wrap crime tape around many different things: dumpsters, stop signs, dozing hobos. But an innocent set of sticks? It just seems so wrong – like a news shooter interviewing a Senator against a plate glass window ’cause he just don’t give a damn. In fact, I wouldn’t have thought such banner abuse was even possible, had this photo by KING-TV’s Randy Eng not surfaced on the interwebs. Okay, it’s no double rainbow, but what does it mean? WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

“A KIRO-TV photographer ran off to interview a person possibly involved with a shooting. Not long after he left, the officer (whose car the tape was tied to) had to leave. The officer was in a hurry, so he wrapped the tape around the closest object and sped away. It was a good thing the officer didn’t wait: the tripod wasn’t reclaimed until almost an hour later!”

Oh. I was hoping for something more… serpentine – like a photog went rogue, got cuffed and stuffed and pissed off the PO-leece so bad they charged his tripod with inciting a riot. Or maybe a news shooter clicked his heels and just disappeared, leaving authorities so confused they draped his camera stand in commemorative yellow. As it stands (get it?), it just sounds like a lazy cop – which is cool and all, as long as they don’t try to arrest any news shooters when they find a squad car covered in extension cord. That’ll show them.