Our house, in the middle of the street
Omfg! What the fuck! I am not fucking kidding. I am starting to think this isn't the safest place to live.
So there I was, about an hour or so ago, still having insomnia problems. Evan had fallen asleep as usual in front of his TV in the outer living room area, next to the front door.
Then I heard very clearly a loudspeaker outside the house. Someone was yelling some threat to get out or there would be consequences (I don't remember exactly what they said now). And I was thinking wtf, because I heard nothing before now. Were they yelling at our house on a cop megaphone? Would they do this without knocking and asking for entry first? Are we about to get raided for some reason? Are we about to all be in super deep shit?!!
And I saw blue and red lights flashing, and I was thinking, holy fucking shit. This is serious.
So I open the bedroom door and hurry out to the living room. I saw Evan had woken up and was looking out through the crappy mini blinds. And there are cops cars all over. They all seem to be pointed up the hill. And the cops have their guns drawn, some pointed at some target up the hill. And we are not talking just handguns, we're talking stuff like assault weapons. Evan said AR-15s and also a shotgun on a Honda Accord.
They ordered someone out of the bushes at one point, maybe an observing bystander, and ordered the driver out of the car. They told him to lift up his shirt and get back from the car, etc. Then it seemed like, with maybe more excitement (although I may have missed part of what they said to the driver) they ordered the passenger out, telling him if he does anything they don't tell him to, they will have to interpret it as going for a weapon. And one doesn't have to think hard about what they would do then.
I did not want to get close to the front wall, but I don't know, if they start firing it seems unlikely plaster walls, even several, would be any protection anywhere in the house. Better to go in lavos's or giboc's rooms the basement if all hell breaks loose. The cops would occasionally look over at us, since Evan was not exactly being subtle about observing. But it ended without any of that, or I doubt I'd be posting right now.
Anyway, they brought one of the guys over and made him lie on the ground. He was saying something to the cops. I was sort of worried, that the cops might come over and bother us for watching, and pondered where that might go, but I was feeling especially paranoid.
They eventually took the people away and started letting backed up traffic through, and had the car towed (they got the towing done pretty quickly). And then they sat around for a long time on the radios and such, and I think they are all gone now. But still...
I mean, we had that night when the semi nearly took out the house. Then we had that day with the old people wrecking their car, followed by 4 rubbernecking accidents, and another accident that night.
I've never felt especially unsafe in any part of this city ever, not even when I've been alone downtown at literally all hours of the night, or in Lake City, or out in the U-district at all hours. (No, never out to party, only out to get to work. I am boring like that.) And you know, I am starting to think this corner is on is not the best place to live in town. We are on the off ramp, at a high traffic intersection. There are always cars on it. I mean, blocking off the street at 2 am means backed up traffic, that is how bad it is. It isn't surprising we get this chaos.
It all makes me kind of grumpy and a bit worried about future safety. I laugh at my roommates claims this place is safer than our place in Lake City. That was a secured apartment building in a low-income but quiet, rather more family oriented part of town. We never had these kinds of problems. Why did I have to be out of town, horribly sick, when they chose this place? The idiots.
(Oh and, Evan and I recorded quite a bit of the incident on my camera. No Rodney King style business, although Seattle has had a bit of that lately. I would post it on youtube but it has my voice asking Evan stupid questions.)
I must say, listening to the police scanner has been educational about Seattle nightlife, even if I never found out what was going on outside the house.
So there I was, about an hour or so ago, still having insomnia problems. Evan had fallen asleep as usual in front of his TV in the outer living room area, next to the front door.
Then I heard very clearly a loudspeaker outside the house. Someone was yelling some threat to get out or there would be consequences (I don't remember exactly what they said now). And I was thinking wtf, because I heard nothing before now. Were they yelling at our house on a cop megaphone? Would they do this without knocking and asking for entry first? Are we about to get raided for some reason? Are we about to all be in super deep shit?!!
And I saw blue and red lights flashing, and I was thinking, holy fucking shit. This is serious.
So I open the bedroom door and hurry out to the living room. I saw Evan had woken up and was looking out through the crappy mini blinds. And there are cops cars all over. They all seem to be pointed up the hill. And the cops have their guns drawn, some pointed at some target up the hill. And we are not talking just handguns, we're talking stuff like assault weapons. Evan said AR-15s and also a shotgun on a Honda Accord.
They ordered someone out of the bushes at one point, maybe an observing bystander, and ordered the driver out of the car. They told him to lift up his shirt and get back from the car, etc. Then it seemed like, with maybe more excitement (although I may have missed part of what they said to the driver) they ordered the passenger out, telling him if he does anything they don't tell him to, they will have to interpret it as going for a weapon. And one doesn't have to think hard about what they would do then.
I did not want to get close to the front wall, but I don't know, if they start firing it seems unlikely plaster walls, even several, would be any protection anywhere in the house. Better to go in lavos's or giboc's rooms the basement if all hell breaks loose. The cops would occasionally look over at us, since Evan was not exactly being subtle about observing. But it ended without any of that, or I doubt I'd be posting right now.
Anyway, they brought one of the guys over and made him lie on the ground. He was saying something to the cops. I was sort of worried, that the cops might come over and bother us for watching, and pondered where that might go, but I was feeling especially paranoid.
They eventually took the people away and started letting backed up traffic through, and had the car towed (they got the towing done pretty quickly). And then they sat around for a long time on the radios and such, and I think they are all gone now. But still...
I mean, we had that night when the semi nearly took out the house. Then we had that day with the old people wrecking their car, followed by 4 rubbernecking accidents, and another accident that night.
I've never felt especially unsafe in any part of this city ever, not even when I've been alone downtown at literally all hours of the night, or in Lake City, or out in the U-district at all hours. (No, never out to party, only out to get to work. I am boring like that.) And you know, I am starting to think this corner is on is not the best place to live in town. We are on the off ramp, at a high traffic intersection. There are always cars on it. I mean, blocking off the street at 2 am means backed up traffic, that is how bad it is. It isn't surprising we get this chaos.
It all makes me kind of grumpy and a bit worried about future safety. I laugh at my roommates claims this place is safer than our place in Lake City. That was a secured apartment building in a low-income but quiet, rather more family oriented part of town. We never had these kinds of problems. Why did I have to be out of town, horribly sick, when they chose this place? The idiots.
(Oh and, Evan and I recorded quite a bit of the incident on my camera. No Rodney King style business, although Seattle has had a bit of that lately. I would post it on youtube but it has my voice asking Evan stupid questions.)
I must say, listening to the police scanner has been educational about Seattle nightlife, even if I never found out what was going on outside the house.