to air, 25 September 2004, USA
Somewhere back in the dawn of time this district had itself a civic dilemma of epic proportions. The city council had just passed a law that forbid alcoholic consumption in public places, on the streets and on the corners. But the corner is, and it was, and it always will be the poor man's lounge. It's where a man wants to be on a hot summer's night. It's cheaper than a bar, catch a nice breeze, watch the girls go by. But the law's the law and the western cops rollin' by, what were they gonna do? If they arrested every dude out there for tipping back a high life there'd be no other time for any other kind of police work. And if they looked the other way? They'd open themselves to all kinds of flaunting, all kinds of disrespect. Now, this is before my time when it happened but, somewheres back in the 50's or 60's, there was a small moment of goddamn genius by some nameless smokehound who comes out the cut-rate one day and on his way to the corner, he slips that just-bought pint of Elderberry into a paper bag. A great moment of civic compromise; that small wrinkled-ass paper bag allowed the corner boys to have their drink in peace and gave us permission to go and do police work. The kind of police work that's actually worth the effort, that's worth actually taking a bullet for. Dozerman, he got shot last night trying to buy three vials; three! There's never been a paper bag for drugs...until now.