It is hard to explain the change the buzz, the feeling, the atmosphere, of our neighborhood that lets me know – something is going down. It starts suttle, small changes in sound, the tones of voices, a noise that is silence, only to erupt as voice get louder, gas peddles hit harder, like I said hard to explain.
Then the sirens wail and you wait to see which way they go. Away? Closer? I peer out the windows watching, waiting, wondering what is up. Sometimes I hear the helicopter heading closer. The noise of the PD copter and the life flight copters are different. Soon the ghetto bird ( helicopter in our hood) will circle the trouble area is marked. Cars start hauling ass down the street, some heading away from the trouble – some headed toward it.
After what seems like forever I might hear a message over the loud speaker. If the local news is aring a reporter may cover whatever the ‘it” going down is. Today the PD website was actually updated: open line from 911….air1 preempted for possible shooting….ground units continuing…. just as the news story hits the net:
A teenager was shot near a high school in South Sacramento on Tuesday afternoon, according to authorities.
The Sacramento Police Department said the victim was shot in the arm near Valley High School at about 3:40 p.m. and was taken onto the campus for help.
The school was locked down while police search for the suspect. The campus has been cleared and the shooter has not been located.
Officials at nearby Consumnes River College advised students and staff to shelter-in-place. Consumnes River Boulevard between Center Parkway and Franklin Road has been closed due to the search.
Authorities have surrounded a home on La Amendra Way after receiving reports that the suspect is holed up inside.
A description of the suspect has not been released.
Ok, so listening out my window I am already know that the kid was shot on Ehrhardt / center parkway near the High School and what roads are closed down.
As the ghetto bird circles up there it seems my street gosip is about 5 mins ahead of the news casters.
It is all quite now the copter is gone. The silence that is actually noise – it is not over tonight ummm . . … 5:31pm
Oh yeah we are blocks away from this a little under 3 miles but the ripple effect is real.
Oh Center Parkway is where some of my bike video was taken
5:52 the copter is back it is the quiter one so must have changed birds? neighbor gals are hollering I am thinking the know the victim? At least from what I over hear.
hey at 4:11 my college sent me this email:
CRC EMERGENCY: An armed subject possibly on campus. Students and staff should find shelter and remain in current location until further notice.
Thank you,
CRC Admin
From overreaction to amnesiac apathy in the span of a few hours– it’s the modern American way. In each candy-coated news sensation there is an anesthetic core of banality.
nothing better to focus on this afternoon.
Yeah, I used to live in LA: Public crime as theater. Fascinating in this Sci-Fi kind of way. But I develop a tolerance… I want more…
Also, I like how you carve out this negative space around the actual shooting, so that it is the only part of the incident that has an air of unreality. Just like life.
it can be very negative. In this case the 16 yr. old was a good kid caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. The shooter was a student (loose use of term) at the high school but never attended.
Same thing happened to one of the kids in my PE class. Wrong place wrong time – only the bullet went in the front of his head and came out the back.
this month is the two year anniversary of his brain loss. Each day his Grandmother or mother brings him to class and he struggles to regain function.
Another ripple in the pond of violence.
I never thought of Sacramento as a scary place to live. Sounds like you need a Terminator. Oh wait, you had one. Nothing happened, eh?
Glad you’re safe.
It is safe where the Terminator lives. Same for my parents. Socia-economics . …
egads.