The Scene is shown above. The upper center is the county courthouse in between Main and Court streets. Just south of this, facing north onto Court Street, is a row of shops & a restaurant. Each building on Court street has a second floor apartment. When I was an undergraduate, I had a group of friends that occupied 1/2 of this block. One apartment had a large storage room that led out onto the roof. Looking southeast from our rooftop bunker, at the corner of Market and Fourth Streets, is the county jail. Inside, there were cops and likely some robbers.The roof is where the battle plans were drawn up, and where the entirety of our soon to be triumphant battle would be fought.
I am not sure who threw the first bottle rocket, but I do know that it was not the cops. It was, after all, a surprise attack. Nor do I pretend to understand, in any way, what the hell we thought were doing. Just having some fun, hillbilly style. The barrage began after the first rocket was released. There was no going back now. Victory or Death. Jail at least. Each of us loaded up and fired, repeatedly. Cigarettes as ignition sources for the explosives, beer as fuel for the revelers. We kept up the attack for 15 or so minutes. When one of us (not me) shot a roman candle at a passing ambulance. This, was precisely the point when the fun went too far.
The cops poured out from the jailhouse, raced to their cars and barricaded us in. This did not take long as they only had to cross the street. They blocked all possible escapes with squad cars, flares, and roadblocks on the east (4th) and west (5th) streets (see above). We were not soldiers and as such were not prepared for any of this. Though if you can't take the heat there is no sense in lighting a fire, right? We hunkered down in the living room and stared out onto a town square that was now drenched in rotating red and blue flashes of light, and a group of armed men moving in. We had to think fast and draw up another set of plans. These were not going to be good plans.
We could pretend to be asleep. Yes, it was someone else throwing these explosives. This strategy would be attempted by 2 people, but would not effective. Roof tar on the feet would surely show that all were involved. We could confront them. How dare these cops! But they have guns, thus this also would not work. Then the forceful knock on the door.
We don't have to let them in.
I'm not sure about this next piece of logic. I don't know if it is true or simply a rural myth, but we believed growing up that if you were having a party and the cops showed up you simply did not have to open the door. If you did then they could come in, and life would end, but if you did not let them in then they could do nothing. Yes, our plan was solid, we would not let them in!
They wanted in, and They were persistent.
2 people laid down in the living room, they were going to fake sleep. The knocking continued. Followed now by hostile voices demanding to be let in. The urgency at the door was reaching a fever pitch. Inside, we were losing it. They can't come in if we don't open the door, they can't come in if we don't open the door, a silent mantra.
Someone opened the door. (This simple act is the sole reason that I don't know if not opening the door is a rural myth or truth.*)
Now with the door opened we knew that we were in for all sorts of trouble. For some reason some of us (me) felt like we were on solid legal ground. Thus yelling back seemed a reasonable response to being shouted at. The yelling match lasted a bit, but not as long as our attack had. I had many more things I wanted to say, but luckily for some reason refrained. Once both sides had calmed down and cooler heads were in play we had a discussion/lecture that largely consisted of "what the hell were you thinking?" and "it was funny until you shot at the ambulance." "Funny"? Holy shit, we weren't going to jail? After a few more minutes of rhetorical question and lecture the officers left. I have no idea why. The flashing lights stopped. Court street was re-opened to traffic. We only had to swear that none of us would leave.
At this point I argued for a second assault, but was quickly told there was not a chance in hell we were doing that again. Once had apparently been enough for everyone.
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Image Credit: The town center of my hometown from http://maps.google.com/
*Truth be told, I have had more than ten other close interactions with the law enforcement community in this town. Though, as in this case, I have not been on shaky legal ground. I have asked repeatedly about the not coming in without the door being opened for them. This is apparently a bit of a gray area. Or at least they didn't know. Remind me some to recount a story about a Firebird crashing into a telephone pole and a young band having some drinks before getting into a cop car.
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