roundup

Recently, I've been helping take some of the guys from the bridge to work at Nate's carpentry shop in the afternoons.  And when I went to pick them up today, a little bit later than usual, I found about 10 cops rounding up all the kids that were working in the intersection washing car windows and watching cars outside the market.  The cops had about 15 kids (including a little 11 year old) lined up facing the wall with their arms above their heads and their legs spread.  So I ducked into a grocery store to watch the scene from inside.  The cops frisked the kids, pushed them around a bit, and then dragged them across the street and piled them into the back of a pick-up truck that was parked right outside the grocery store.   

It's always good for the kids to not be on the streets doing drugs, but these roundups don't really help.  The kids get roughed up and dumped in homes or kept locked up for a day or two, but they always make their way back to the streets. 

I thought there might have been some kids up at the bridge, but I didn't want to risk get caught in the middle of a police raid.  So I called one of the girls (yes, even street kids have cell phones), and was relieved to hear that they were away from the bridge washing clothes.  

It'll be interesting to see who's back in the next few days.  I'm just praying that they don't come back with bruises and broken noses.