From: uwalert@washington.edu
Subject: UW Alert
Date: July 2, 2009 5:01:58 PM PDT
To: [me]Dear Jessie Hirsch,
Armed robbery on Brooklyn and 50th. Two armed suspects heading south to
Campus Parkway. Stay alert
I’m still on the mailing list for the University of Washington alert service. This is a recent innovation– I think it was implemented last year, but I can’t remember exactly. Sometimes I get e-mail/SMS messages that alert me to a hazmat spill in some chemistry building, and other times, I get one like the above.
What a great way to mobilize eyes! I could go on for hours mocking the UW about various things, having spent 5 years there as a disgruntled student, but I will not mock them about this. There is something terrifying and wonderful about the thought of 45k+ students all getting the same important information at once.
So, around 5pm, Brooklyn and 50th was probably packed as usual with UW students looking for dinner. I like to imagine the armed suspects making for Campus Parkway (?!) when all of a sudden cell phones ring all around, everyone pulls them out, and the armed suspects filled with sudden, violent terror.
Payphone on Brooklyn, 2008
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