== Welcome home, have some gunfire = By Mark Morford

[madokie]

Nothing like returning from vacation to the dulcet sounds of hardcore street violence, no?

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2007/09/12/notes091207.DTL&nl=fix

And what a lovely day it was, all sunshine and 70 degrees and a light San Francisco breeze, most of the city away for Labor Day weekend and the rest at Burning Man and anyone who was left pretty much feeling that groovy and mellow and relaxed vibe you can only get when the city's volume is dialed way down to a low, even gentle roar.

It was a feeling that fully included me, having just returned from a lovely, remote, four-day getaway up in Alaska, salmon fishing (I know), with my father (I know!), pretty much the polar opposite of Burning Man and quite the perspective refresher and battery recharger, doing what has got to be the easiest and perhaps least intellectual non-sport ever invented (well, save for maybe hunting. And NASCAR. And dating Jenna Bush), and one powerful reminder of just how many pine trees still remain on the planet despite our best efforts to rip and scrape and strip our mountains bare.

So then. Sunshine. Light urban traffic. Good music. Deadlines met. Easy running of errands, sunroof open, transporting the ex to pick up her car from the shop, laughing and chatting in easy conversation and all good with the world.

And then, wham. A sudden siren, then two, cop cars pulling up fast and screeching to a halt exactly at the very corner of Steiner and McAllister that I so happened to be just approaching, a mere 50 yards away, three officers jumping out quickly, hands to holsters, crouching low, running. ...

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