My life as a member of the Gang Unit...
So I was offered $100 dollars to watch a dance from 11pm to 1am last night.
Some kid rented the lodge to hold a dance and was willing to pay an extra $100 for someone to stay until 1am. So I take about 30 seconds to think about that and agree to it. Easy $100 bucks. Come the night of the dance I am working until 11 across the street from the Lodge. Working there is pretty good since it gives me easy visual observance of the lodge. In case anything blows up or catches fire. So Saturday, the day of this dance, I am working and looking out the window to the Lodge to check on what the dance is shaping up to look like. No one even shows up until about 9:30p. From my viewpoint there did not seem to be many cars there. So i'm thinking great, small group, nice and mellow, easy $100. Awesome.
Bzzt. Wrong answer.
So about 10:30 I notice about ohh 200+ kids standing in very large groups in the parking lot. Some of them striking me as having dubious character. Now the room rented in the lodge has a capacity for 600. That means either the inside is packed and the 200+ in the lot is "spillout". Or no one is inside yet. I am hoping for the latter as I start to finish up my drawer and prepare to leave work and walk over. Holy crap was I wrong. I just hit the parking lot and note several things. 1) I am the only white person here. 2) The inside is packed. 3) If *anything* happens, I am screwed or dead. It could go either way.
So I get inside, and note two off duty officers that have been hired to keep things under control. I start to laugh inside. Cop or no, 700+ kids start anything and these poor cops are going to be just as screwed as me except they are armed. So I meet the kid who rented the hall. Great kid, really nice and polite. So I proceed to do my Tyler thing. Stay out of the way, keep on eye on things, walk around the building and parking lot to make sure everything/everyone is OK. No problems.
So now it's 12:30 and they are clearing the building, and the kids are leaving and gathering in the lot. This is a lot of kids. I just know something is going to happen. Luckily one of the cop's has the same feeling and calls in the Wichita gang unit. Not 2 minutes after he does that, a group of girls breaks out into a fist fight. Then someone, (being of very low intelligence), decides to light off a firecracker (supposedly a firecracker). Everyone scatters and dives behind cars. I mean almost everyone. The cop's walk in to break up the fight, and apparently are not to worried about being shot as they are wearing vests. And me, I am just standing there watching it all not but maybe 15 feet away. I figure if it's my turn to go diving for cover wont help much. So about that time 30 seconds after the gunshot/firecracker goes off, the place is mobbed with Police, the gang unit is there, an SUV, 7 or so patrol cars, EMS, and two fire trucks.
So now im thinking "Please don't let this get on the news. Please please please."
We don't need this kind of press. So I guess I will find out tomorrow if it was in the news.
I suspect we wont be renting the lodge out to this person anymore. Good kid, but we can't have that kind of crowd and trouble again.
Vienna Teng - Feather Moon
Some kid rented the lodge to hold a dance and was willing to pay an extra $100 for someone to stay until 1am. So I take about 30 seconds to think about that and agree to it. Easy $100 bucks. Come the night of the dance I am working until 11 across the street from the Lodge. Working there is pretty good since it gives me easy visual observance of the lodge. In case anything blows up or catches fire. So Saturday, the day of this dance, I am working and looking out the window to the Lodge to check on what the dance is shaping up to look like. No one even shows up until about 9:30p. From my viewpoint there did not seem to be many cars there. So i'm thinking great, small group, nice and mellow, easy $100. Awesome.
Bzzt. Wrong answer.
So about 10:30 I notice about ohh 200+ kids standing in very large groups in the parking lot. Some of them striking me as having dubious character. Now the room rented in the lodge has a capacity for 600. That means either the inside is packed and the 200+ in the lot is "spillout". Or no one is inside yet. I am hoping for the latter as I start to finish up my drawer and prepare to leave work and walk over. Holy crap was I wrong. I just hit the parking lot and note several things. 1) I am the only white person here. 2) The inside is packed. 3) If *anything* happens, I am screwed or dead. It could go either way.
So I get inside, and note two off duty officers that have been hired to keep things under control. I start to laugh inside. Cop or no, 700+ kids start anything and these poor cops are going to be just as screwed as me except they are armed. So I meet the kid who rented the hall. Great kid, really nice and polite. So I proceed to do my Tyler thing. Stay out of the way, keep on eye on things, walk around the building and parking lot to make sure everything/everyone is OK. No problems.
So now it's 12:30 and they are clearing the building, and the kids are leaving and gathering in the lot. This is a lot of kids. I just know something is going to happen. Luckily one of the cop's has the same feeling and calls in the Wichita gang unit. Not 2 minutes after he does that, a group of girls breaks out into a fist fight. Then someone, (being of very low intelligence), decides to light off a firecracker (supposedly a firecracker). Everyone scatters and dives behind cars. I mean almost everyone. The cop's walk in to break up the fight, and apparently are not to worried about being shot as they are wearing vests. And me, I am just standing there watching it all not but maybe 15 feet away. I figure if it's my turn to go diving for cover wont help much. So about that time 30 seconds after the gunshot/firecracker goes off, the place is mobbed with Police, the gang unit is there, an SUV, 7 or so patrol cars, EMS, and two fire trucks.
So now im thinking "Please don't let this get on the news. Please please please."
We don't need this kind of press. So I guess I will find out tomorrow if it was in the news.
I suspect we wont be renting the lodge out to this person anymore. Good kid, but we can't have that kind of crowd and trouble again.
Vienna Teng - Feather Moon