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03/09/2007: "A Little Too Close For Comfort"

The part of Redondo Beach where the Home Office resides includes a lot of rental property, so you never really know who your neighbors will be or, more importantly, how they'll act. We got a pretty disturbing demonstration of that yesterday ...

This has been a long week for me. After two days of teaching 6-hour Velocity classes, all I wanted to to yesterday afternoon was plop my fat ass on the couch and relax. As I'm driving south on Aviation towards home, I notice a helicopter circling in the distance. Being a news junkie, I can tell the difference between the news choppers and a police unit, and I could see as I approached that this was an LA County Sherriff unit. I could also see it was alarmingly close to the Home Office.

A left on Ocean and a right on Green brings me close to Pullman and home. But before I could make the last left turn, I see a police unit parked in the intersection of Green and Belmont, and another a block further. Yellow tape blocks access to the area, and the chopper continues to spin tightly overhead. I get out of the car on the driveway and notice that the Home Office is close enough to whatever is happening that I'm within the orbit of the chopper. I went about my business, but it was a surreal scene to have the peaceful experience of watering my roses interrupted every 30 seconds by the whine of the chopper as it passed just above the roofline. I'd look up and every time, there was the deputy and his rifle - looking right back at me.

Soon enough, the chopper flew off and the excitement died down. It wasn't until I saw this morning's paper that I learned the full story:

Police cordoned off a Redondo Beach neighborhood and used a helicopter and dogs during a two-hour manhunt Thursday for one of two assailants who stabbed a teenage boy, beat him with a baseball bat and made disparaging comments about his sexuality.

Police eventually found suspect Brandon Blaxland, 19, hiding at a relative's house just blocks outside a two block-containment area near Flagler and Belmont lanes in north Redondo Beach, police Sgt. Peter Grimm said.

Now I understand why I was getting the evil eye from the deputy - the Home Office is "just blocks outside a two-block containment area". For the record, one block north and one and a half west of that intersection.

Never a dull moment here ...

As for the crime itself, I'm a big believer in free speech, and we'll probably have a separate discussion about it here in the future (in a nutshell, this is America - say what you believe, but be man enough to face the consequences of your position). However, to use that right to hurl hurtful words at others is cowardly, and to then try to back up your position with a bat is evil. They may not have thought about their actions, but they still have to pay the price. Lock 'em up - and while you're at it, take this jackass, too:

Two girls, who said they had been in the car, sat together on the curb as police examined the vehicle late Thursday afternoon. One girl's father told the pair not to speak to a reporter.

"It's just kids being stupid," he said.

Here's hoping he's just a short-term renter ...