Be Alert... the world needs more Lerts

so I was riding home the other day...
nothing eventful
was not riding long or hard
just riding straight home

my path was dictated by the flow of the lights
zig zagging across town
trying to get from my office on the National Mall
to my home in Mount Pleasant


I was rolling up may have been 11th... or maybe it was 9th...
one of those streets
which I am not certain
either way... the exact location is not important to the story

I was riding along minding my own business
just doing my own thing
when I saw a pack of kids... maybe in their late teens
they were crossing the street as a cyclist was headed downhill in the opposite direction as myself

as the teens approached the cyclist
one young male picked up an orange safety cone and motioned like he was going to throw it at the cyclist
as another young male made an action feigning a punch at the cyclist

it all happened very fast
the cyclist did not even react

I passed the group and watched as they crossed
I then watched how they responded to the cyclist coming up the road behind me

looking back I saw that the teens did nothing as they passed the cyclist
still watching the cyclist I said something as I ran a red light
it was not close... but I ran the light in front of a car
I asked the cyclist "did you see that?"

the cyclist said "yes... you almost got hit by that car"
which was not true
but it amazed me that he had not seen the teens
oblivious to their aggressive approach to the other cyclist
and mislabeling my running of the red light

we shared a few words... but he was going too slow for me to talk any longer
I moved on