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July 8, 2005

"That's a hard name to live with"

The "Po-lice" have, for whatever reasons, gotten smarter about going after the dealerz on 55th street. The day before yesterday they picked up one guy who decided to run from the cops. On his bike. The cops got him.

The biggest issue is that cops would come around of after dusk, at which point in the day there really wasn't much dealing or hooking going on. Most of that occurs between 5:30-7:30 when people are travelling home from work and need a fix.

Yesterday the cops rolled up, 6 cars all told, a little after 6. They chased one guy named "Butthole" (seriously) on foot. Butthole was the live-in something or another with the woman in the crack house on 55th. She's also got the 6 kids there, some who are Butthole's, some of whom help their dad/step-dad deal.

So anways, cops roll up, Butthole takes off up 55th and into the woods, I think, presumably, to head up Lookout Mtn. perhaps to seek refuge with some of his customers. I dunno, I found it ironic. Regardless, Butthole was caught, arrested, and put in one of the cars.

For the next 20 minutes or so while my neighbor Gerald and I watched all this, the Cops sorta milled around, talked up what happened, and in general worked the testosterone and adrenaline out of their system. It was kind of strange, like a pack of dressed up wolves fidgeting after the kill or something.

So I'm asking Gerald who everyone is, and he tells me "they arrested Butthole." And I say inquiringly "Butthole?" He explains: "that's his streetname." I ask further "what's his name?" And he says "It's Butthole". I say "wow" and Gerald says "ya, why I never wanted a streetname. End up with something like 'Butthole'. That's a hard name to live with".

Then we watched Butthole get a body cavity search. I wont go into the details, though Gerald made a few comments 'bout Butthole hiding things in his butthole. "Like prison". I admit I laughed, though it was somewhat of a morbid laugh.

Later on Butthole's son "Shadow", all of 10 years old, showed up on his bike yelling "F--- the PO-lice!" which of course prompted an officer to get out of his car and walk over to Shadow, leaning down into his face. Shadow didn't really care for this and cussed at the cop some more. Gerald stated "That's Shadow. He's hard."

The cop then grabbed Shadow by the face, which freaked me out a little. Shadow then knocked the cop's hand away and took a few swings. The cop promptly spun him around, pinned him against his car, and put him in handcuff's declaring "alright! if that's how its gonna be. I'm taking you to juvie." He then tossed him in the back of his car.

His mom came over from the house on 55th and the cop and her talked a bit. I'm not really sure what happened after that. Mesh pulled up and he and I had to head off to see Jerry Seinfeld.