Newbury Street Pastoral

So Bostonist was sitting on a stoop on Newbury Street yesterday afternoon, waiting for some coworkers who foolishly thought they could get to Upper Crust from Government Center faster on the T than we could on our bike. As we soaked in the sun and enjoyed the parade of shopping-bag-laden, wealthy foreigners, we had the additional pleasure of witnessing a drama with three distinctly Bostonian elements: Parking, profanity, and difficult race relations. Allow us to share:

The scene first catches our attention when a twenty-something black man, standing next to a white meter maid and a running car, calls out down the street to a young black woman approaching with a shopping bag, for whom he has apparently been waiting.

MAN: Yo, I think you got a ticket!
YOUNG WOMAN: Why?!
MAN [loudly]: I told her [gesturing to meter maid beside him], "I gotta go get change for a dollar," and she said, "Tell it to the judge," and I told her [extra loud], "Bitch! You don't gotta talk to me like that."

The young woman reaches the place where the man and the meter maid are standing and calmly asks what happened. She tells the meter maid she thought they wouldn't ticket a car if there was someone in it. The meter maid says that no one was in the car when she ticketed it, and that the man only arrived after the ticket was printed. The young woman seems ready to drop the matter, but the man then says to the meter maid, very loudly, "Bitch! You's a liar! Go suck a dick."

Then, as if by magic, a police cruiser happens on the scene. The meter maid, still holding the ticket, walks over to confer with the cop, who is black. Meanwhile, the young woman tries to calm the man, who is increasingly agitated. He loudly declares, "This is racial profiling! My basic human right, my first amendment right, is freedom of speech, so you got nothing to be talking to the cops about. My first amendment right is freedom of speech, SO GO SUCK A DICK!"

The young woman, flustered, politely asks the meter maid for the ticket, gets it, and shepherds the man into the car. The cop drives off, as do the man and the woman. By this time, another meter maid, also white, has arrived on the scene, and the first meter maid walks over to tell her the story. They stroll back and forth for a while chatting, and as they come back into earshot, Bostonist hears this exchange:

METER MAID INVOLVED IN INCIDENT: ... should've arrested him.
OTHER METER MAID: For what?
METER MAID INVOLVED IN INCIDENT: It's called disturbing the peace, and if it were a white cop, he would've arrested his ass!