(right: the view from our front door, one sniper on top of the armored vehicle, one at the back end, and, below, another sniper directly across the road from us)
On December 1st I blogged here about the militarization of our block. I had walked out our front door with 3-year old in hand to see a dozen flak-jacketed dudes with rifles running up the street in formation. I walked my daughter back in the house and to the back where she was least likely to be hit when the firing started. The firing never started.
Our two daughters were pretty unfazed by the event and they've not talked about it since. It now seems like a surreal moment from a (bad) dream. Ironically the children from the house that was raided were all at school and never witnessed the situation.
The raid was apparently to extract a man wanted for a shooting in North Oakland. The police waited till most all the kids had left for school and then began their military operation. No neighbors were given any warning beforehand or any de-briefing afterwards. We were nothing but the potential collateral damage.
Subsequently, the neighbor, who's home was raided, is now leaving the block. Some kind of agreement between her and the landlord was struck. One of the kids from the house who regularly plays with us told us that they were leaving and that their mom was baking us a cake to thank us for being friendly towards their family.
It only ever rains stones for the poor.
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