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I watched from this vantage for at least an hour, and then took my leave. This whole shebang obviously struck one as incitement to riot.
So that night I went up to Haight Street. I went to a coffee and donuts shop on the south side of Haight not too far from the corner of Clayton. I did this for three nights running. I ordered coffee and would sit in the front window and watch the action. Others were doing the same but it was not that crowded. At one point some kids tried to break into the jewellery store across the street on the corner. The windows were break proof so they didn't get much, but the burglar alarm rang incessantly on that night. There might be a fire in the middle of the intersection that someone of the maddened neighborhood had set.
Many of the street lights were out. It looked like a war zone outside, but bright lit neon inside. Buses were still coming through. Once in awhile an occasional tourist, thinking maybe that they had accidentally driven into Hades would come swerving and speeding buy. I remember a station wagon from Kansas or some-place, the father driving, mom sitting on the passenger side, and kids in the far rear facing back giving everyone the peace sign.
Late in the evening after dark the cops would march in two lines across Haight at the Clayton intersection. Each line was of about fifty cops in helmets, plastic face shields, and batons. One line moved east down Haight and the other west toward where I was. The lines were solid cops shoulder to shoulder, all the way across the street.
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