I was driving through lower Manhattan today trying to get to the Holland Tunnel. I usually take the Manhattan Bridge out of Brooklyn/Queens but somehow got on the Williamsburg bridge instead. I'm testing a new GPS that I have and it tells me to make a right turn from some street near the Manhattan Bridge onto Canal street. Suddenly I see cones blocking it off and this black baboon in a police uniform starts jumping up and down making all sorts of gestures that I can't understand. One of them looked like he wanted me to go through a red light into opposing traffic, but I didn't go because I was unsure and it did not look safe. He then pauses his gestures. Suddenly the light turns green and he starts jumping around again. At this point in time I was partially lost and wanted to make a u-turn. I figured I would try verbal communication since I could not understand his signals. I rolled down my windows and asked if it was ok to make a u-turn. First he said no and then two seconds later he screamed, "No, you do whatever the f you want". I was shocked because I don't think I've ever heard a police officer say something like that to me.
I made my u-turn and because of horrendous traffic I finally made it onto Bowery, where I was hoping to make my right turn onto Canal. The only problem was that this intersection had another baboon blocking it off. I don't know why they had to close such a major street which since I didn't see any festivals, but what is really disturbing is that they can't post detour signs and warning to let people know where to go when streets are closed. Even more annoying were the conflicting signs to tell people which lane to get into to go through the tunnel. There was one sign that said to keep left and right in back of it was a sign that said to keep right. I understand that the city has more people than it should, but the way they run it is totally unacceptable.