I ended up in downtown Wiesbaden today (Sunday). Over a 2.5 hour walk, coffee sitting, with a beer pause.....I took note of the surroundings.
Yes, there's a few mentally disturbed folks walking around that you probably wouldn't have noticed in the 1990s. There was the guy with the motorcycle helmet on (in 30 C/86 F temperature).....who is gyrating about every fourth step and does some weird shuffle like a dance.
Yes, there was the guy who was heavily clad in winter gear and probably working hard for dehydration and a heat-stroke.
Yes, there was the half-clothed retiree lady who stopped and tried to have a five-minute conversation on the street with people.....fussing over kids/lack of respect.
Yes, there was the bag-lady with a shopping cart loaded with personal items....lounging on a bench.
Yes, there was the five or six guys sleeping on concrete and recovering from a morning beer (or two, or three).
I gazed at the city police blotter in the past hour.....a ambulance crew had a return trip halted yesterday....seeing some guy laying on the sidewalk in town...'looking' dead.
Ambulance crew stopped and started to render emergency care. Well...guy jumps up....feeling threatened....started beating on the ambulance crew and a police team had to come and settle things.
Just drunk and laying there was the police judgement.....but involved an assault effort to reach that decision.
It's just not the same town it was in the 1980s.
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