I got out of my car, which admittedly was parked in a no-parking zone in front of gang unit headquarters, and had only snapped a couple of shots when I saw three cops in plain clothes walking toward me. One of them stayed behind while the other two continued their beeline. "Can I have a piece of identification, miss?" one of them asked, glaring. I handed him my I.D., and he copied down my name and address, along with my car's license plate number. "You wouldn't happen to be from The Stranger, would you?" he queried. "Yep," I said.

"You have violated two offenses today, miss," the officer continued in a pissed-off tone. "One, standing on the street, and two, parking in a no-parking zone." I asked if he was really going to give me a ticket, and he said, "Well, we will just have to see about that. I guess we'll know when this article comes out, won't we?" He smiled wickedly and walked away with his partner. I headed for my car.