Just witnessed a 'police activity' on the freeway in SoCal.....

[singpilot]

Anyone trying to get around anywhere near LAX today knows what I am talking about. Was a day off, and I left the boat at 10-ish on my way to the valley. Up the 405, and I was on a bike.

Doing the usual mid-day commute speed of 80-85, fast lane doing 90. Just after LAX northbound, traffic comes to a screeching halt. I see flashing reds up front 10 cars or so. I split lanes up to the unit. He is stopped, crossways. He gets out, asks everyone to shut down, this is going to take a while. He points to an overpass 50 yards ahead. There is a guy hanging from the railing, threatening to jump.

First thing they did was move 7 semis each direction, one in each lane and shoulder to park under him. The entire time someone was talking to him from the street above. Then Fire-Rescue shows. Set up an airbag discreetly under the overpass where he cannot see it. They are ready to shove the airbag under him if he goes.

Three hours go by. Lots of talking, gesticulating, pacing back and forth from one side of the freeway overpass to the other, letting this guy talk to relatives on a cell phone, nothing is working. The parked CHP unit had the radio on loud enuf to hear.

Special negotiators show up. I swear to gawd, they looked like Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. White guy, long hair, jeans, t-shirt, badge on belt, 9mil holster, empty. Black guy in a suit. Exactly like the 'Lethal Weapon' look. They go to work. 15 minutes of talking gets nowhere.

Gibson guy walks off of the overpass for a minute or two, comes back with 3 greasy white bags and 3 drinks. Yep. Crowd, all out of their cars with me down on the freeway are now yelling......

The two police guys sit down on the overpass and procede to eat these big greasy burgers and drinks right in front of the guy hanging on the fence. He is getting agitated. They are intentionally being really messy, dropping parts of their burger to the pigeons and seagulls. The girl next to me is talking about how cruel that is eating in front of this poor guy. I laugh, say, watch this, it's part of the plan. She looks at me like I am the crazy one. I had to explain to her that the guy is stupid enuf to try and do himself in from an overpass, he is stupid enuf to fall for the greasy burger trick. She smiles, sees the irony and the plan.... She thinks I should go get greasy burgers for all of us stuck on the fwy.

The guy eventually climbs up the fence, hanging the top of his body over the fence, pleading for the Gibson / Glover duo to give him his lunch. They remain seated, casually eating, even showing him his bag with a burger in it, waiting for him to come get it. The guy climbs the rest of the way up over the fence, and easily drops onto the overpass, grabs his burger bag, and opens it. 10 officers are on this guy. He actually breaks their grasp, and breaks away. He gets clear, several times, but stops and turns around to keep going back towards the lunch sack on the ground.

Last I saw, he collapsed after the TASER got him, actually still holding the bag. He had cleared the gaggle of cops twice.

That must have been one fine burger.

I'm sure you'll see this tonight on the TV, there was a TV helo overhead. I am the guy in a red coat on the fwy, standing next to one of my many bikes, a purple Honda Sabre.

[Mulhollanddose]

Yep. I was there. Up on Manchester at the Triumph stealership. Everyone ran out to see what the hubub was, so I went and hung out for about 20 minutes as the nutbag was clinging to the outside of the overpass, hanging over the 405. They had the whole damn freeway shut down for this crack-head. I was so happy to be on the bike. I couldn't imagine being a commuter, like the 405 aint bad enough...I wouldn't have blamed some road-rager pulling out a piece and putting an end to it...The freakin' nerve of that guy. Talk about entitlement issues...The guy SHUTS DOWN THE 405!!!...Mofo!...That is what the welfare culture breeds.

[B D]

Originally posted by singpilot

That must have been one fine burger.

Was it an In and Out Burger? I would die for one right now.

[svandamme]

if they wanna jump , let em.
cops should simply close down the road
evacuate the jumper (if he happens to jump, good skillz)
open the road, and then take the jumper with the heli to a suitable jumping area...jump? sure...how high do you want it?


there should be a law about jumpers... some kind of liberty to kick em off the edge...solve the problem from two sides: make sure the definitive cases get out of the way asap and make sure the attention grabbers think twice befoe grabbing the attention...

[Mulhollanddose]

In the picture, if you go straight up, from the middle of the bike's windshield, you will see a figure on the overpass where the trucks are lined up...He is wearing tannish pants and dark shirt...You can barely see him but that is him...I would have been up on the left side, right on the corner. They had the whole block on Manchester shut down for said pain in the ass.

[nostatic]

wouldn't a sniper have been quicker?

I saw the notice about the 405 being closed while heading west on the 10. I had to get to my office in MDR and took Sepulveda instead of the fwy. Glad I did...

[singpilot]

Thanks Mul, that is him. The grab after the burger bag was awesome. This guy broke multiple police officer grabs and holds. Was completely clear several times for a minute or so. He kept going back for the burger bag on the ground. You know, the way someone in the playground would in a game of tag. The one officer that was guarding one flank, and who had been end runned once each direction was the one that came up with the taser. The nut was at full speed, shirtless now after a grab, and simply went stiff when the barbs bit. He went down hard. I'll bet prior to that he didn't have a mark on him.

[widebody911]

Originally posted by svandamme
take the jumper with the heli to a suitable jumping area...jump? sure...how high do you want it?
[/B]

I like it!

[svandamme]

Originally posted by nostatic
wouldn't a sniper have been quicker?

probably yeah ,
but let's not override mental torment by logical decisions

leave the dog a bone , will ya!?

[singpilot]

One of the many bikes that gravitated to the front of the pack was a recent arrival back from Iraq. A Ranger on a Buell Blast, brand new, had 190 miles on it, his first day back, his first ride, to here from Camp Pendleton(190 miles away). He was laughing, in that cruiser, parked in front of us, was an AR-15, in the lock, of course.

He was snickering. Said he could have ended this stupidity with the tools at hand. One shot.

He was on his way to see his Mom, in Sacramento. Hope the rest of his ride is boring.

[Mulhollanddose]

Originally posted by singpilot
Thanks Mul, that is him. The grab after the burger bag was awesome. This guy broke multiple police officer grabs and holds. Was completely clear several times for a minute or so.

No, man I didn't stay...I saw nothing but wide open 405, I thought it would be fun to take advantage, so I went to the nearest onramp and just enjoyed the rare moment of Friday afternoon on the 405 nearly all by my lonesome!!!....That guy cost people some valuable time, damn if I was going to stay there longer than 20 minutes....Freakin' bum...Although I wasn't effected in any way, I felt the frustration, and empathized, of the thousands upon thousands of stuck motorists...I have ZERO sympathy for that nutbag.

[Mulhollanddose]

Originally posted by singpilot
The nut was at full speed, shirtless now after a grab, and simply went stiff when the barbs bit. He went down hard. I'll bet prior to that he didn't have a mark on him.

Well, I suppose I will sleep a LITTLE better tonight.

[svandamme]

cop : listen up buddy , here's the deal, we got a sniper with skillz, eager to shoot...just say the word...

or , you come off the ledge, get in the chopper, and we'll fly you to a good crash spot... 30 minutes worth of fuel to choose the spot


let's face it bud... it's the sniper , or 30 more minutes to make up yer mind... don't get me wrong... after 30 minutes, it's jump or section8

crunch time sissyboy..what's it going to be .... plomo or 30 minutes? you have 30 secs... no word means plomo

[singpilot]

Y'all living elsewhere are really missing out. Just another sunny day in paradise.

I have this knack for being at the right place at the right time. Keeps happening to me (all my life).

Will be another little episode in my book.

Think of the almost cosmic consequences if I had actually met Mul, standing there on the fwy. Us looking up at the nutbag together.

[svandamme]

well, i have a nack for getting those on the messenger

x i'm going to ....
me: and?
x you don't care
me : nope, get it over with
x i'm not talking to you any more
me : cool , see you on monday @ work.

not kidding , this was today at 21 hours...
can't be arsed, i've been stupid myself, got the stupidscars to live with... i know for fact that beggedfor sympathy does not work... encourage the suckers...call the bluff...

[Mulhollanddose]

You know, I could have probably beaned him with a rock from my vantage point...That would have been great!...

cut to my fantasy:

"So, I am sitting there and some guy starts hurling rocks at the jumper. He comes really close a couple of times, but the police go after him. All the focus turns from the jumper to this guy throwing rocks at him...The cops are after him but they can't catch him and he continues trying to knock the guy off the overpass. The guy throwing rocks was yelling something...I couldn't really hear what he was saying but I swore it sounded like he was saying, "get the F' off the overpass you bloodsucking liberal!!"...At this point the jumper is getting upset that the attention is off him and he starts trying to find his way down...Then all of the sudden you see the rock throwing guy make one last throw and then he is tackled by the cops...Get this, the rock beans the guy right in the afro and the guy falls off the overpass....lol...I was laughing my ass off...Who would have figured."

[svandamme]

should be more rock throwers if you ask me

not just in this kind of situation , but in general
kids these days are to protected
they can't take punches

the ability to take a hit is underestimated these days

Mohammed Ali didn't underestimate it....
Rope-A-dope....

it's a skill

[Howard Agency]

Should have been blaring Randy Newman's "I love LA"
Move away and leave all this? Never!

[Oh Haha]

Maybe it was a Kahuna Burger. With a Sprite to wash it down.

[singpilot]

Wayne. Exactly. Must have been a tasty burger, was the line I think.

Life imitating cinema.

Gotta hand it to the duo. 3 hours, nada.

These detectives show up, put in the order to go at the corner where Mul was standing.

3 Tasty Burgers and Sprites to go. That Lieutenant over there will pay for it.

OK Roge, lets go see what we're up against. I'll be back in a minute to pick that up.