The Arrest

 I was working at Belk downtown one Saturday.  I had parked off of Assembly Street.  When I got out of work to head home, I went to my car and started driving on Washington Street heading toward Sumter.  When I got to the corner of Washington and Sumter, the light turned red.  On one side of the corner was the old Richland County courthouse.  On the opposite side was a parking lot.  As was my custom, when I stopped at a light, I would look in my rear view mirror to see if anyone was behind me.  I looked, and there was a two-door car, maybe a Firebird, behind me with two men in the car. 
 All of a sudden, several police officers rushed the car behind me.  Some had pistols and others had shotguns.  Some wore plain clothes and others had uniforms.  I watched in shock as these officers pointed their guns at the two men and ordered them not to move.  I was asking myself what I should do.  It was obvious that the police had used my car and me to block the men from escaping.  They had also controlled the traffic light, which was still red.  On the other hand, if there was going to be any shooting, I didn't want to get caught in the crossfire, so I had to make a decision.  If I got out of the way of the situation, I would be breaking the law by running the red light.  So, I waited until I felt that the situation was stable.  I then turned right from the left lane through the red light and went around the block.  I wanted to see this takedown, but not be in it.
 I rode around the block.  It took no more than three minutes to get around the block, even though I was still shaking from what I had seen.  When I got around the block, the car was gone.  The police had loaded the car into a trailer.  The two men were gone, along with all of the police.  Everything was back to normal.  There was an article in the paper the next day about a big-time drug arrest that had taken place the day before, and I guess that it what I witnessed.  The arrest was very well coordinated.  Some people may say that it could have been a movie being filmed.  There were no cameras.  This was real.