Crime After Dark

I could have left but it was getting dark. I did not keep track of crimes within a 1/2 mile of where I live. Two blocks west and two blocks north a man who just moved to Long Beach was playing basketball. He saw someone going through his backpack and chased him into an alley. The man was shot and killed by the wannabe robber. A guy driving a stolen car took off when cops tried to pull him over. He crashed the car on my corner, then fled on foot. If I remember, police shot him when he was found hiding in an unreported store's parking lot. Could have been 7/11, Ralphs, or the mini-mart service station.

Last week there was a fight in the parking lot outside of Ralphs. One of the fighters bit a finger off the other. Did not see any news report about the crime scene tape I saw and 8 black and white cop cars and two/three more unmarked cars. Crime scene tape usually means death, I think. Shots heard in a home, two blocks east; stabbings and other probably gang related shootings. A grandmother stabbed to death in her home.


I was ready to leave because I did not bring a shirt with me and was cold. One of the drummers offered me a ride home if I wanted to wait. Now he was being detained. I thought about walking in the dark in my neighborhood and did not want to do so. So I waited.

Okay, I have lived on the streets 24/7 so out after dark every day of the week. I was never terribly afraid of walking alone at midnight or 2AM prior to my homelessness. Except there were certain neighborhoods I would not be walking in after dark. Homeless I pretty much avoided gang banger territories. All that said because I spoke to the patrol guys and was astounded that they told the men they could not leave. The man with the bum knee was told "sit on the sand" with the threat of being taken to jail if he did not comply with orders to stay right here.

That is how I learned that the cops have the right to take them to jail and also to take a cigarette smoker to jail. So much for love, peace and joy. Arrested for playing drums at the beach, oh my, such a crime.

The men were not given citations. If they play next Sunday the man who complained is required to come to the beach and issue a citizens arrest on anyone he sees playing. As we waited "officer is taking the complaint right now and we have to see what the outcome is before we can let you go," they were told. The man said he did not want the guys arrested and sent to jail, just wants them gone.

Marcus and Dupree can contact a couple of the other regular drummers to tell them the news. But the group is very loose. People from other cities drum circles often join them. There are different faces every week. Like the group that was there when I arrived today. Another group might show up next Sunday and start jamming, being totally unaware of the warning and threat of arrest. How fair is that?

My issue is the music could hardly be loud enough to be a noise nuisance to the man. Oy, whatever did he do during the Grand Prix? And all the other music concerts held along Shoreline Drive. "They had permits," I was told when I wondered aloud about that one. I asked L. Lopez if he drove over to the apartment complex to check for loudness. He said he did go over by the fence and could hear the music, but did not know the decibel inside the building.

"Ordinances" about the decibel is the reason for a possible citation. Oy, those drummers are way quieter than Grand Prix racers. And they do not squeal, peel out, burn rubber, causing smoke smelt 10 blocks away, talk about air pollution. All that burning rubber also defaces the street. Go figure, as my son used to say.