I was a St. Louis Mills last night when...
... I saw these flashing lights right outside of the "playground" entrance.
I started to walk to the exit doors, and they didn't open.
I found a side-door and pushed it opened then walked through.
I had been with a group of friends who, for the sake of this blog entry, are white females that look about 17 or 18. Both are over 21.
As we walked outside, I could see what looked like 100 teenagers crowded around the nearby theatre exit.
There hadn't appeared to be a fight, and none of the teenagers appeared to be making a commotion. So, I assumed that some movie had come out and the officers were just there to keep the peace.
I had parked my car behind the theatre's exit doors, so I had to walk past this massive amount of teens crowding the sidewalk to even get near my car.
The other pathway was directly into the group of cops, who were standing around in a circle, talking.
Right as I was deciding on the only logical path, the circle street section, I remember looking down to make sure that I didn't fall when stepping off the curb.
I looked up, and a young, white, male police officer was swiftly walking in my direction.
Odd, because there weren't any teenagers really near me.
I was carrying a large yellow shopping bag, full of over $100s of items that I purchased.
Surely... surely he saw that I was a patron. Someone that was caught in the crossfires of whatever was going on at the time.
He pulled out what looked like a night stick, and then extended it while shouting "Get in the street!"
My eyes turned into big headlights as I walked swiftly into the street.
We all grabbed hands, fearful of whatever was coming towards us.
I heard the teenagers screaming behind me.
They ran in all directions, and I didn't look back.
I was finally making it to the parking lot that contained my car when an officer abruptly asked "Where did you park?"
Confused, I said that I was heading to my car, just now, and slightly held up my shopping bag.
I took a breath and asked, while still walking, "What is going on? What happened?"
The officer seemed to calm a bit, noticing that from my voice, I wasn't some random teenager... I guess.
He responded, "Kids, just acting crazy."
I remember responding, but I don't know what I said.
We walked swiftly to the car, trying our best to get out of whatever was going on.
This afternoon, I searched repeatedly for some news article, video, or just a snippet of someone making a Facebook comment regarding last night's encounter.
I found... nothing.
After talking with another friend, who was not there, I came to the conclusion that the teenagers were probably bored... having nothing to do and nowhere to go.
However, how did they even get there?
The bus doesn't really run that frequently or else, I would suspect, they'd all be at their respective bus stops - away from the mall.
The Metrolink does not go anywhere near Hazelwood, to my understanding.
So, that leaves - parents.
But, why would parents drop off their children at a mall that would promptly kick them out hours before it actually closed?
And why wouldn't those parents be there to pick up their kids?
If there was no fight, disturbance, or otherwise, why would the police abruptly approach the teenagers instead of, from previous experience, just tell the kids that they'd need to disperse - in a calming, understanding sort of way?
To be truthful, the kids were, mostly, black.
The officers, almost entirely a group of white men.
Have we started back?
Are the tables turning, again?
