By kiki
Seeing these pictures of this stolen Montebello Police car brought back Simons Brickyard memories. - One moonless summer night during the late 1940s, we kids from El Hoyo were hanging around 'la lumbrita' (small fire) when a Chota's (police) car with red flashing lights came roaring out of the profound darkness that was the brickyard once the sun went down. Us kids didn't know what to make out of the Chota's car because the Chota never ever went into El Hoyo at night; hell, they hardly went in during the daytime. So we really didn't need them as Simons was, despite its notorious reputation, a safe barrio.
Of course, there were drunken brawls among men, and some time among women too, but no cuetes (guns) or fileros (knives) were used, or needed: the men fought like men, with their fist, and the women fought like women, pulling their hair and poking their eyes. And some mischievous kids gave the brickyard's private Chota a hard time; they'd so by burning the brickyard's paletas (pallets) and people's fences, not to mention stealing a rooster.
With its flashing red lights and going as fast as it could, the chota's car came bouncing on the dirt road ruts, ruts deep enough to loosen tooth fillings, towards the la lumbrita, and as the flashing red lights got nearer, we could hear yelling and laughter coming from the chota's car. The car made a couple of fast 180 turns, spraying dirt as it did so before it stopped in front of us, frozen in our shoes, kids. Four barrio guys said they were chota's jumped out of a stolen Los Angeles County Sheriff's car. The new chota's were quick to get back in the wind. We heard a few days later that the wanna-be Chotas were in the graybar hotel.
