"/>"Mira que francachela policía de mierda en el cielo!"
So here I am leaving Venice Beach last Sunday night
about one step ahead of the vast human and non-human
wave of police that descends on the Drum Circle every
Sunday summer winter spring and fall, at exactly sunset.
Sit in a circle on the beach! Bang a drum, huff a doobie,
and wait for the Normandy Invasion to come down
from the sky. Police helicopters whirl through the sunset.
Crazy searchlights flash everywhere.
So I scoot off the beach just in time to avoid a full-tilt
armored personnel carrier that looks more like al-Falluja
than Venice Beach. Then I'm perched on a bench outside one
of 100 medical marijuana prescription mills on the boardwalk,
and beside me is a very short Latino kid, 18 or 20, from
somewhere way down south I guess, maybe Honduras or Salvador.
"It looks like the Fourth of July! Parece que el cuatro de
Julio," I say, the kid smiles, and out of nowhere four or five
very similar-looking individuals appear as if they had popped
out of four or five different pods of invisibility.
"¿Es este gilipollas Anglo achicando de ti?" (Is this Anglo
asshole dissing you?) or words to the same effect they say,
and this is what you might call a serious question in terms of,
will I still be alive in 2 seconds?
But my new friend shakes his head no and points to the sky.
"Mira que francachela policía de mierda en el cielo!" I say.
"Look at that fucked-up cop circus in the sky!"
Smiles all around, and we wait out World War X together until
the LAPD wraps up its insane show of force, and off we all go
in our different directions.
Mara por vida, homey!
These were dangerous kids for sure, very bright-eyed and quick.
I hope they find a decent future somewhere.
