Do you ever find yourself wondering if maybe you don’t live in the best neighborhood in the city? A small clue might be waking up to several police officers in your backyard with their guns drawn and pointed at the man who is trying to hide under the deck.
(Sorry for the low quality of the photo - it was first thing in the morning, and I didn’t want to take another, because who knows how cops with their guns drawn are going to react to people taking their photo.)
I’m not sure what happened. From what I overheard of the conversation they had with the girl who lives downstairs, the guy was flashing people on Sandy, then got into a fist-fight with a cop on Davis, and then hid in our backyard. The police were doing a yard-to-yard search, and found him in ours. She sounded pretty pissed that no one had knocked on the door to tell her that they were arresting someone in her backyard. The cop explained that standard procedure is to arrest first, explain later - but what would have happened if she had opened the door and stepped into the back yard?
Anyways, who needs coffee or an alarm clock when you’ve got cops yelling at a guy in your backyard?
I'm a 30-year-old 
Standard procedure makes most sense in most situations … focus on capturing the perpetrator as quickly as possible allows the police to afford maximum protection to all residents in the neighborhood. It’s one of those situations where the good for the many must outweigh the good for the few.
August 26th, 2004 at 10:50 am
It is well within your rights to take photos of the police doing their job, as long as you’re not obstructing their ability to do their job. (As is my understanding)
Of course, with us living in a police state now, clinging to that right is more difficult. :)
August 26th, 2004 at 11:55 am
yeah, no kidding, thank goodness I wasn’t home, my car would’ve gotten trampled for obstructing justice or something! ;)
August 28th, 2004 at 11:29 am