Monday, August 25, 2008

LAPD Blue

So, last Friday, I'm on my 5-mile walk route, same as any other every other day. These days, although we've had a mild summer, I still prefer to do my walking at dusk, so it's not too hot, not too cold. Anyway, last Friday's walk was completely uneventful and non-descript at first. However, about 10 minutes after reaching the halfway point and turning around, although ears deep in Public Enemy, I nonetheless spotted some type of goings on up ahead. Namely, the westbound side of Santa Monica was all of a sudden shut down, but more curiously, I see several blocks worth of pedestrians all standing still, facing forward in the same direction, like it was a crowd scene for a Jerry Bruckheimer film, or one of those Verizon, "Can you hear me now?" spots. Begrudingly, I temporarily interrupt, "She Watch Channel Zero," so as to see what was up.
Much to my surprise, I see some sort of police stand-off outside of the Starbucks. As I got within a block or two, I hear the female police officer over the loudspeaker saying, "Come out of the Starbucks single file, with your hands on your head, and turn left." My first instinct was, "Huzzah! The Starbucks set is finally getting their comeuppance for years of spending $5.00 on a friggin' cup of coffee." (give me the 75-cent, street vendor variety any day of the week. black.) Then I realized there was an actual situation afoot. As I got closer, (gotta keep the heart rate up, standoff or no standoff), I actually saw several officers outside the store in like, SWAT team postition, guns pointed directly at the store.
By now it sort of dawned on me that, hmm, maybe I should probably skeddadle, in case things go awry. A strong police presence is one thing, but kill weapons out of their holsters is another. Plus, I think that the local constible's were a little extra gung-ho, since they don't get too much heavy action in WeHo, lessen' you count public drunkenness, solicitiation, or subduing Andy Dick as heavy action. Last thing I saw, some tall stringbean was getting cuffed and stuffed, and all of a sudden, I felt safer, knowing this double-latte fiend was now off the streets.

1 comment:

Darren Felzenberg said...

You really gave 5-0 the hint not to step in your path, O.G.

The more you insist you've been listening to Public Enemy, the more certain I am you've been listening to Mr. Mister or maybe the Hooters.