“Put Your Hands In The Air!!!”

Have you ever stepped out of a building only to hear someone yell "Put your hands in the air!  Police!"?  Until yesterday, I hadn’t.

On my way to my friend’s house yesterday I decided to make a pitstop to buy some weed from my regular guy.  I’ve been buying from this guy for probably about 10 months now, on and off, mainly because he’s a really reliable dude and I’ve always felt really safe buying from him.

As I was walking by the park across the street from the the building this guy operates out of, I saw a few cop cars and a posse of about 4 cops around this dude who was lying face down on the ground.  It wasn’t just some little minor arrest either – the cops all had their guns drawn, and they were yelling at the dude to stay down and not move.  It seemed like a lot of cops for one guy and I asked a bystander what was going on: "Someone got shot or something, they heard gunshots"

Okay, that’s kinda fuckin’ scary…  Seeing as I had never seen a gun before in my life until I saw these cops with the guy on the ground, and seeing as I’ve never heard a gunshot before in my life… Yeah, a little bit freaky.

I stood there for a minute deliberating whether or not to go buy my weed, and decided I would just be quick about it and get the fuck out of the neighbourhood.  I entered the building through the back (which I always do), and headed up the stairs.  I noticed there was change all over the stairs – nickels, dimes, quarters, a couple of loonies and toonies which I picked up because I’m a hobo and I need money.  I found this a bit odd that someone would leave loonies and toonies among all this other change littered all over the stairs, but finished heading up, knocked on the door and waited for a response.  Nothing.  Dead silence.  Seeing as my dealer is always there and always answers the door in a matter of seconds at this point I was more than just a little freaked out and decided to get the fuck out of there.

I walked as fast as I could to get down the stairs and stepped out of the building – "Freeze!  Put your hands in the air!  Vancouver Police!"  It was a dude in plainclothes and another dude in a uniform at the front of the building, both with fucking guns pointed right at me.  Keeping in mind – until about 3 minutes before this, I hadn’t even seen a gun before.  I probably looked suspicious as a motherfucker because I was wearing my black ballcap and a baggy black fleece jacket.

I put my hands in the air, showing I wasn’t holding anything other than my walkman and slowly walked towards them like they told me to.  Once they saw I wasn’t holding anything and that I am who I am (a tiny little white girl with a walkman and regular student-style clothes) they chilled slightly and at least pointed their guns away from me.  The plainclothes guy went back to holding his gun at the building and the cop in uniform asked me a few questions: "What were you doing in there?  How long were you there for?  Where were you going?  How did you get in?"

I told them I came in from the back and that I was visiting friends in one of the apartments, and when he asked me which apartment I told him #3, because I knew they were obviously after my dealer who lives in #4.  I told him I was just there to visit friends, I knocked, they weren’t home, and so I was just leaving.  The cop believed me (thank god) and made me stand between a couple of buildings for a while – with good reason!

When I entered the building there was only the scene going on with the guy by the park, but when I came out… Dude, cop cars everywhere, cops everywhere, guns everywhere… I saw a plainclothes cop with a fucking sniper rifle running around!  They had cordoned off not only the block the building was on, but everything within a one-block radius.

As soon as the cop’s back was turned who was watching me, I took off – walking, not running, because running attracts attention, but walking very very very fast in the opposite direction of all the commotion.

I called my friend and started babbling about what I had just encountered, and she told me to hurry over to her place.  I picked up a McCain’s marble cake and a thing of chocolate milk on the way.  Seeing as I wasn’t going to spend my money on weed I figured I needed something else to help me calm down.  Went over to my friend’s, we ate cake and I drank chocolate milk and I calmed down from my little adventure.

24 hours ago I hadn’t seen a gun before – now I’ve had them pointed at me by cops.  It’s one of the scariest things in the world, because what if I had tripped or something, made some kind of sudden movement?  What if their fingers had slipped?  *bang!*  Gone.

This makes me extra afraid to go down to the US now, where regular people are allowed to own guns.  Legally!  That’s so FUCKED.

Being the eternal optimist I am, I can think of two benefits to my experience yesterday:
1.  It makes for both a great life learning experience, and a great story.
2.  At least now I know my weed connection is busted and I need to find a new one.