Crossfire in downtown Anchorage -- or -- How I pissed off the Anchorage police and lived

"Go in your house please," the officer says. "You have guns pointed at you."

No joke. Guns were drawn Downtown tonight, pointed right at yours truly, who filmed the whole thing.

Tonight was ridiculous. Seriously. I'll be the first one to tell you.

Some kind of love triangle splashed itself all over Sixth Avenue Thursday night. The Anchorage police said that two men and a woman, in two different vehicles, were involved in a chase, which ended right in front of my house. The cops held them at gunpoint while I stood in my yard videotaping, apparently in the line of fire.

Here's the video. (Sorry it's so choppy.)



Here's how it started. We set out from the house around 8 p.m., headed toward Downtown proper and some pizza, which we found at Humpy's. Sitting on the back patio, sipping martinis and noshing on some good, old-fashioned beer and 'za -- we had a great time. It was heavenly. The sky, in rare form for this summer, was clear. Blue patches actually peeked out from the clouds, and the ConocoPhillips building shone golden, as it does on nice, clear summer evenings.

After walking back to the east side of Downtown on Sixth Avenue, I heard sirens approaching from behind. As I opened my front gate and stepped into the front yard, I saw a blue SUV swerve to the side of the street and stop next to the curb. In a blink, before I realized what was going on, six Anchorage Police Department cruisers and a white undercover Hummer were blocking Sixth Avenue. Lights flashed. Sirens blared.

Three officers grouped together in formation and, with guns drawn, slowly approached the SUV. Then they ordered two people out of the SUV. (Later, I would learn that their were three individuals, who had been in two vehicles.)

"Please get in your house!" the officers yelled to me as I stood in my yard videotaping the arrest. I was in the line of fire, they said.

I was on my private property, I said.

"You have guns on you!" they yelled.

Clearly, they didn't agree with me. I was breaking the law, they said later, because they were arresting someone at gunpoint, with guns pointed at me, while I stood on my own property, and I was interfering with an arrest. The argument being that I was preventing them from protecting themselves. If the suspects had shot back at the police, because of my presence, the police wouldn't have been able to return fire, they said.

"What I'll do is I'll come in your house and arrest you," one officer informed me.

"We can't return fire now, because you're standing out in your yard," said another officer.

"I would fucking hope not, because we live here!" my girlfriend said.

When I asked for what the people lying face down on the pavement were being arrested, I was told that they were not being arrested -- yet. When I asked what they had done, the police officers said it was none of my business.

"If you were arrested, would you want us to air your business?" the cop asked me.

"I'm a journalist," I said. "Yeah, I would."

I don't want to get too opinionated, but I don't think the cops should be "returning fire" anywhere near my house, whether I'm standing outside it, or fast asleep in bed, or playing Parcheesi in the living room with my goddamn grandpa.

On the other hand, as one officer on scene put it, they use hollow-point bullets for a reason: because they break apart when they hit a wall or a car. The idea, he said, is that someone inside a structure is safe, while the police are still able to use lethal force on a dangerous suspect.

I apologized to the cop -- because, really, they are not dealt an even hand. These poor guys have to go out every night expecting the worst, whether it be dumb, drunk rich kids with $60,000 rice rockets, or gun-wielding maniacs with coke problems -- but I asked him to please not fire in my direction.

I don't like guns pointed in my direction. Who does?