Here's some gangsta shit

Instead of going out last night, I decided to watch a marathon of The Wire episodes I had on Netflix. The Wire, if you haven't seen it, is a great show about crime in Baltimore, Maryland that ranges from street level gang shit to corruption in local government.

So basically I was busy watching a cop show when I notice there are flashing lights hitting the blinds on my windows that face the street. I think it might be a tow truck, not caring much. But then I hear a megaphone of a woman saying "step out of the vehicle." I jump up and look out the window to see a black Acura with people in it right in front of our apartment, and 6 COP CARS in a row with their lights flashing (no sirens) behind the first cop car. The cops have their guns pulled.

I lose it. I run to the bathroom convinced a stray bullet is about to enter my apartment, and Killian, like the really smart guy he is, wants to film the event through our front window with his iPhone. The woman continues to tell the people to step out of the vehicle, and they aren't complying.

A little background- in the last month and a half, there have been two murders on Treat Avenue, my street. It's extremely unnerving because Treat is normally the calm amongst the storm that is the Mission District. There were two murders up our street recently and that's been creepy (one was the leader of the Hell's Angels in SF). And in addition to those two, there have been a lot more shootings around. I've seen countless cop cars patrolling the area. And I think most people have become more jumpy and aware of things; it's much quieter on the streets in the evenings.

So back to last night- I'm listening to the policewoman on the megaphone telling these people to get out of the car, and it was intense because you could tell she was trying to sound calm and authoritative but they weren't getting out of the car and who knows what was happening (I was in the bathroom, and I finally convinced Killian to get the fuck away from the window) but her voice would get excited and nervous and you could tell they didn't have control over the situation yet. I peek out and see a bit of the street from our bathroom window, and I see a cop running up the street with his gun drawn.

So that goes on for a while. Then loudspeaker voice finally starts sounding like people got out of the car and are complying, so we go to our front door (which has a window out) and peek to see what's happening now. Five kids are getting handcuffed and the cops are looking in the car. Then Matt walks right up the stairs with his bike, and is in disbelief that he just came home to this. He said in addition to the 6 cop cars down the street, there are additional squad cars blocking the street up where we can't see.

So by this point we are outside standing on our porch, and the excitement is dying down, the kids are being put into squad cars. There are some cops checking the vehicle, and one opens the trunk of the car. All of the sudden, like 4 cops jump back and some draw their guns because there was a fucking kid in the trunk! He was lucky they didn't shoot him because you could tell he scared the shit out of everyone. Apparently he was in the trunk because there was no room in the car. THAT was funny.

What we deduced is the kids stole the car and were joy riding or something around the Mission. They may or may not have been gangsters, to me they just looked like high school kids being retarded, but unlucky for them bad timing because with all the recent murders, the cops are not taking any chances.

At first I started thinking, hmm, maybe we should consider moving, but then I thought, last night they put a total of 9 cop cars on one stolen vehicle that may or may not have been something really serious. So now I'm thinking, we are probably in the safest place!