First, some background on who Baton Bob is. The northern end of the Atlanta downtown business district is called (for reasons not germane here) Midtown. It’s a nice, safe part of the city with typical office buildings, shops, the High Museum, churches, etc. It’s a great part of town to work in, with a great variety of lunch spots to walk to, parks nearby, etc. I live out in the 'burbs, but I love working in Midtown.
On to Baton Bob. Baton Bob is a local character, who enjoys dressing up in a tutu. And heels. And lots of sparkly make-up. Most of the time also with a Mardi Gras style mask.
Oh, and he twirls a baton. Not very well, but nonetheless, he is Baton Bob, so he has the Baton. He struts/parades/sashays around Midtown dancing on street corners to cars passing-by, sometimes interacting with pedestrians. He has stated his goal in life is to spread mirth. 99.9% of the time that’s what he does.
So yesterday, Baton Bob took to the streets to celebrate the SCOTUS decision on DOMA. While walking to grab lunch yesterday my co-worker and I encountered Bob, and he was in rare form. High energy day for Bob, no doubt. We were walking to a building named Colony Square. Bob frequently comes through the common area there, which is a local gathering spot with a sort of food court area. Apparently the security guards had had enough of Bob’s antics and asked him to leave the property. When I saw Bob yesterday, he was strutting towards the door with two security guards following him, about 15 feet behind.
Somehow the situation escalated outside, the APD got involved, and Baton Bob wound up being arrested. It had to have happened while my buddy and I were sitting inside munching on our sandwiches.
Apparently Bob didn’t take kindly to being arrested, dropping a few f-bombs, and generally being difficult.
He seems like a harmless guy. Hate that something like this escalated on a day that should have been a happy one for baton-twirlers everywhere.