oh, that's going to be on the police blotter for sure

I was just going to bed, about fifteen minutes ago, when,

I would guess

maybe 2-4 blocks away

*CRACK*

then, right outside my window, a siren lights up and a police car (I didn't see it, don't know if it was marked or unmarked, must just have been sitting in our street, ?waiting?) zooms down the street to the corner and out onto the through street

then, maybe a little further away (or smaller caliber)

*crack-crack-crack-crack-crack*

more sirens, more highspeed cars

some squealing tires

lots more sirens, running, then shutting off

I can hear sirens from *long* ways away now coming into the area.

Now it's all gone quiet.

Now dogs barking, and manual sirens.

Now quiet again.

I'm going to guess that local law enforcement was expecting something, goodness knows what, to go down tonight, only maybe it didn't get handled quite as neatly as they expected. A little bit of Season One of The Wire right here in Langley Park.

I was going to say I hope no one got hit. But just as I was finishing this, I heard what is definitely an ambo siren. Now several, heading down the through street to Adventist.

Like the song says, "someone's going to emergency/someone's going to jail." :-(

postlude

About ten minutes after my last post, there's a siren goes off right down by the through street (about a block away), and I hear some shouting that seems to resolve into "DON'T MOVE! DON'T MOVE! DO NOT MOVE!" About 4-6 police cars gather, with lights going, there's a good deal of shouting, it seems like one of the units is a K-9, because there's a lot of serious barking (which then gets the neighbourhood dogs going). There's some talk, none of which I can quite hear, and then after roughly ten minutes, the police cars start shutting off their lights and dispersing; a couple of guys are still out in the street talking, but I still can't hear. Maybe someone got mistaken for a guy they're still chasing? It's hard, almost being able to pick up pieces, but not quite.

Now dogs are barking further off, across the stream and up the hill. Is the K-9 unit out trying to track down one or two runners still?

dangerous place I live in!

I was up all night with all of last evening's excitement, and I hadn't even heard that there was an armoured car robbery in town on Friday!

What, has this turned into 1920s Chicago?

it gets better and better

Trying to find reporting on last night's events, I stumbled on a news article from this summer that carried the cheerful news that "On average, one person is shot or stabbed in the Langley Park area every week." Others report the prevalence of MS-13 recruiting there.

Langley Park is the next neighbourhood over, where all the excitement was going on last night. I knew it was rough; I didn't know it was that rough.

(no subject)

Remarkably productive day. I had a long list last weekend, of which I got, like, two things done. Today, better.

Did laundry yesterday after I got back from my buddy's. Today I cleaned up the car a bit, then went out. I got cat food. I got groceries. I came back and cleaned the microwave (which was rather crusty). I took the A/C units out and stowed them until next summer (two more windows to get light through, yay!) I cooked up most of the veggies that might spoil, plus some chicken I had hanging around. And I baked a pair of pumpkin pies that I'd had the makings of for a little while.

Taking the day off tomorrow, as the government is closed. I should be able to do some do cleaning, knock off a few more chores, maybe sort out the photos from my trip.