fun with intersections

so i'm on my way to work this morning, and as a fellow pedestrian and i are starting to cross the street, the light turns yellow. not deterred as there is plenty of time from yellow to red and red to green for us to hurry across, we step up our pace, and simultaneously the cop directing traffic turns to us and barks something that sounds like "Baar be bar!", which i translate into watch the cars, because the next thing he does is blow his whistle and wave the cars to come on at us! which they do of course, because it's the thursday morning commute and these drivers are 4 days sleep dep'ed and caffeine addled, so we are now sprinting across this damn intersection and meanwhile...the light is still yellow! what kind of fucking traffic direction is that!?