SALLY ANN FIELD
“911, what’s your emergency?”
I grew up in rural America in the 1970s. Our local newspaper, The Tri-County Times, was published weekly and the “Off the Police Blotter” column was always a highlight. Here, for 20¢, the community learned of cows escaping their confines, a motorist losing a hubcap after hitting a dangerous pothole, or even a piano falling out of a pickup and shattering all over Main Street.
It’s now 2021 and I live in Los Angeles. The physical newspaper has been replaced by a digital version which I read on my iPhone, iPad, or iMac. In 2019, I installed Citizen, this app delivers real-time safety alerts of incidents nearby. Shocked to see how much was going on within a few miles of my Hollywood home, I began taking screenshots of the more humorous and brow-raising reports.
When the pandemic hit, the number of reports escalated and I found myself with a pretty crazy collection of happenings. Tired of being housebound I ventured out safely, armed with my mask and my camera, to visit the “scene of the crimes.”
The result is a less than glamorous – yet often hilarious – collection of 100% real happenings in La La Land.
