THANK YOU LBPD

"Tonight was ended abruptly
By 4 squad cars and an LA county SUV
Who were called to detain 8 poets just for speaking freely
As if that was not enough please tell me why
It was necessary for a pork chopper to light up the sky
Are they really that concerned with our words getting to the sheeple?
Or is it just because we weren’t under the cover of a steeple?
As we said our words into the night
Words; not drugs or weapons, not prostitution or anything like that but they still pick a fight
They still had to put us in their big bad spot light
Anyways I would like to thank the Long Beach PD
For having such courtesy
To inspire me"

        -Jonathan Negrete

In regards to Wednesday February 16th Writers Block session. The night was wonderful, we had a great turn out. Could not have asked for a better night. It was around 1:15 in the am, there where 8 poet's/musician/artists/ left, we were all packing up are stuff; guitars, notebooks, mic stands, candles, throwing trash away and preparing to leave. When we see a bright light coming towards us, and i wish i could say it was an encounter with another species, well in some senses it was. An officer pulls up and gets on the megaphone and says "all of you need to get down here and come to the patrol are", us being the polite respectable young adults that we are kindly followed her instruction. We all walked down the steps leaving the mural we have come to call home on Wednesday nights behind. We walk up the path leading to the patrol car with all of our things in our hands. The officer asked us to put all of our stuff to the side and sit in a line on the ground in front of the patrol car. We obliged, as she starts to question us on things that where irrelevant to why we where being talked to like 12 year olds, like who is going to take responsibility for the beer bottle, in unison we all way what beer bottle, the officer pointed at mar and said the one she just threw away. Mar looked at her and said it was root beer, which it was. As all of this was happening three other LBPD patrol cars pool up, because you know how unruly 8 artist are, we asked the officers how there nights where going and with no reply they just stared at us with disgust, degrading. The first officer who arrived at the scene was a women, she started to lecture us about how dangerous it is to be here, and the not only is it illegal, because the public beach closes at 10 the public public public beach closed at 10, but that transits often sleep under the mural and that it is unsanitary and they they come and roust them, yes the officers paid to protect you roust the homeless who sleep on a raised platform by the closed beach where people are not aloud to be so that they will move up to the streets where they can be a nu sense to the people. Its kind of funny because we have had the writers block sessions in that same location for 6 months now and the only instances we have had with the homeless is the one or two times when one of them have sat in the corner and listened to the performances. And as the lady cop was giving this very moving and persuading speech we got a nice big spot light shined on us from up in the sky once again not an alien encounter but a police helicopter thats right a police helicopter, for 8 poets reading poetry on the beach not harming anyone. Money well spent if you ask me. She then went on the collect our ID's and if we did not have that our names and address', and while she was running all of that, a la sheriff SUV showed up (funny thing about that is LA Sheriffs do not have jurisdiction in long beach). And after all that hassle at around 1:45 she gave us our ID's said to leave and recapped her speech. 

                                   THANK YOU LBPD AND LASHERIFFS FOR KEEPING THE COMMUNITY SAFE FROM THE ARTISTS. YOU ARE DOING A SPLENDID JOB.