WWTBAM Bored

This morning, there was a heavy presence of SWAT vehicles and SWAT officers in helmets and body armor (no masks though) in our complex. There were at least a half dozen vehicles, two of which were parked directly in front of our building. For a while there was one man lying on the ground at the corner, but he eventually got up and staggered off, so he obviously wasn't being detained or in need of immediate medical help. A couple of bystanders reported hearing a pop-pop-pop that might have been shots fired shortly before the police arrived. It appears that most of the police presence was directed at one of the buildings around the corner from us,so we couldn't see them. (Our complex has 100 units in 15 buildings.) My daughter went outside to check on what was happening and one of the police told her to stay inside for "a while." We also heard a voice on a bullhorn speaking Spanish at one time. They were there for about 90 minutes total and just left a few minutes ago.

With over half the units in our complex now occupied by Hispanics and large numbers of Hispanics in the adjacent apartment and condo complexes, I have been half-expecting/half-dreading an ICE raid for a while. There's an intermittent history of deadly violence in the area. Some 20 years ago, a man was shot to death about 20 feet from the front door to our building after a dispute about a car stereo. (Two men were soon arrested.) A few years before that, I was robbed at gunpoint right outside that same door while taking groceries from my car one night. And somebody was running a drug house in an apartment in the complex at the bottom of the hill from us. One day, a group of robbers tried to hold them up and a big shootout ensued leaving several of the robbers and drug dealers dead or immobilized when the cops showed up. That's life where I roll.

What made today's raid especially scary in our unit was the fact that our cleaners were here this morning for their weekly cleaning. They're from Brazil, and I don't know or care about their immigration status. But we made sure they stayed here and out of sight until all the police left.

There's an intermittent history of deadly violence in the area. Some 20 years ago, a man was shot to death about 20 feet from the front door to our building after a dispute about a car stereo. (Two men were soon arrested.) A few years before that, I was robbed at gunpoint right outside that same door while taking groceries from my car one night. And somebody was running a drug house in an apartment in the complex at the bottom of the hill from us. One day, a group of robbers tried to hold them up and a big shootout ensued leaving several of the robbers and drug dealers dead or immobilized when the cops showed up. That's life where I roll.

Bad boys, bad boys, Whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?
Bad boys, bad boys, Whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?

You are living on the edge.

Best I can offer is when we still lived in Houston, we lived in a gated golf course community. Not upper class, more upper middle class. But nice homes, nice area.

Anyway, two houses away from ours, around a corner so that house was not visable to ours, but our community mailbox was next to their driveway, was a flop house for some ladies who worked on their backs. They didn't conduct business there, but spend their off time there, I guess. We assumed who they were when they would answer the door in skimpy outfits that were not so stylish as tacky (kids selling candy, cookies and such).

One day there were helicopters, local SWAT, FBI, DEA, and Treasury officers raiding the house. We came to find out from an FBI neighbor that they operated a fake credit card operation there. Police collected 1,000s of fake blank credit cards, fake IDs and such. No shots fired, but was petty scary for the neighbors next to and across the street from them.