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I asked him if he knew of or could give me any special knowledge. He said no. He said he was a sort of chaperon to a bunch of run-a-way hippie kids that he was housing in his place. But the only thing he could suggest was that I might take a look at the Kabbalah. So I was disappointed. He didn't know anything. So mostly I didn't talk to people. I preferred these characters as symbols rather than real people. They never conformed to my expectations. I could make more out of them in my imagination than they could by being real.
I didn't know much about local politics. In my mind I was relating this police inspired riot to political machinations as might be applied to what history I knew, like tactics the Nazis might use. Later I found out it was a Mayor Alioto affair. He was running for re-election in the fall. He did the same thing his next election, only in North Beach. Not that the Haight was not a mess because it was not as tranquil as it had been, A lot of undesirable elements were coming in and the original idealists were moving out.
At some point later on in Alioto's term of office there was a police strike. There were no cops working and there was no crime. There was a vacuum that didn't seem to know a filling. Then after something more or less than a week a Chinese gang robbed something like six restaurants in row, on one night in China town. I was down on Mission Street at night during the strike, patronizing some of the markets and liqueur stores. Those proprietors were scared and had extra people in all packing weapons. It was very tense.
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