Go to enough of these things -- ribbon-cuttings, political debates, wakes -- and you can pick them out at a glance: people who show up to get out of the cold or partake of free grub.

I'm not knocking the three disheveled guys who, like drunk Shakespearean oracles, stumbled into the Durham NAACP-sponsored debate this week between the two men running for mayor of Durham -- three if you count no-shot write-in candidate Paul Scott.

As a broke college student, I used to go to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings just for the doughnuts, so I applaud the guys' ingenuity.

When the dudes wandered in midway through the debate, I expected they would sit quietly or doze until Mayor Bill Bell, council member Thomas Stith and Scott got through pummeling each other.

Sure enough, at the end they did just what I expected: They sprang onto the fried chicken wings and other delicacies set out for the occasion.

En route to the food spread, though, they did something unexpected: They put the candidates on the spot.

Sure, eyes rolled exasperatedly and even the moderator betrayed a look of "What the ..." when one of the men asked the candidates whether they could help him get his job back at N.C. Central University.

His buddy stood next and asked what they were going to do to stop the homicides that tarnish Durham's reputation and keep hearses rolling.

"I lost my son," he kept repeating after asking his question.

The men, in their own inebriated, oblivious way, recognized that yes, all politics is local, but also that all politics is personal.

Stith has made crime in Durham the cornerstone of his campaign, jabbing at Bell for individual murders as though he expects the mayor to don tights and a cape and personally apprehend crooks.

Fighting crime might be the issue that most distinguishes Bell from Stith and vice versa. Stith sees more cops as the answer -- along with "viable programs for our at-risk schools," he added as almost an afterthought.

Bell espouses what he called "a collaborative effort" between cops and programs like his Summer Youth Work Program, which got jobs for 400 Durham teenagers last summer.

He also disputed the "myth ... that Durham is unsafe. ... It doesn't help when you have people going on television telling people for political gain that it is unsafe to sit on their porch."

The "people" he was referring to was Stith.

Scott has as much a chance of becoming Durham's next mayor as I do -- one of his proposals is to put a recording studio in City Hall and let teens record anti-violence rap songs -- yet his comments had the most heads nodding in agreement throughout the evening.

Also, Scott, the community rabble-rouser -- that's a compliment -- found himself in the unaccustomed position of peacekeeper simply by virtue of the seating arrangement. He sat between Still Bill and and Stiff Stith, dudes whose disdain for each other is palpable.

They're both too cool, educated and controlled to pimp-slap the other, but you can bet they both probably fantasized about reaching past Scott and doing just that.

OK, maybe it was just me who fantasized about them doing that.

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