David Chiu

Tonight we heard some people arguing loudly out in the street. When we looked out our window we saw two guys in their 20-30’s arguing with an older man (who mentioned he was 45). The argument seemed to be about money and the two guys were ready to jump on the older guy. One of the younger guys was holding a metal pipe. The older man kept saying he wasn’t going to fight them and then one of the younger guys took a swing. I immediately called 911 and told them to get a cop car down here quick. I was afraid the two guys were going to seriously hurt this man.

To my surprise, two minutes later I heard sirens and a cop car came rushing onto our block. Fortunately, the fight was broken up by a women and everyone had gone their seperate ways, but the cops stopped them for questioning. Another cop car arrived as well and they got out of their car and started to walk down the block looking for people to talk to. We didn’t feel like speaking to the cops. Those two younger guys actually live down the street and we were afraid that if we ponted them out they would retaliate later. Their house is known for trouble anyway.

The cops questioned the two guys at the house for at least 30min and then started patroling our block shining their bright light around the houses. I think they were looking for the older man. It made us feel good that the cops patroled are area for the next hour. We’re also glad they responded so quick. But I think they are trying to clean up our neighborhood. Cop cars and police helicopters are not foreign in our neighborhood. They always seem to be chasing somebody or looking for somebody.

Our neighborhood isn’t all that bad really. For the most part it’s quiet. But we do keep a padlock on our front gate. We’ve had too many “people” come to our front door asking for money. It’s funny though to watch movies and see that when they show “South Central” or “the ‘hood” it’s basically places that look like our block.