i need a police scanner

Monday, May 19, 2003, at 08:37PM

By Eric Richardson

So just now I'm sitting in bed, watching Simpsons, when all of a sudden a deafening roar shoots past, sounding like a fighter plane swooping over our building. Then it happens again, so I finally get up to look. It's the LAPD ghetto-bird, but flying harder than I've ever seen it fly. They illuminate a house a block back from my apartment (just across 29th), and keep circling tight. Then the cars show up. Final estimate I'd put around 10 LAPD cars, and 3 or 4 DPS vehicles. Late in the game a fire engine and an ambulance make appearances. Then the chopper leaves after 6 or 7 minutes, and I'm left just watching a huddle of cops on the sidewalk. Very unfulfilling. I wish there was some way to know what was going on in situations like this.