Former scenes of madness and crime, in Spokane

I have three short term goals, and to take advantage of the early darkness, I need to get the goals completed soon. Goal one involves Spokane Night Scenes photography in Hillyard. Next, I want to shoot around the neighborhood in Spokane’s South Perry business district. My third goal was to get out in the fog, which I did a week or two ago in Spokane's Riverfront Park.

Hillyard has a history with me, although I am sure it is not of any official historical value. Each time I drive through Hillyard, I think of two things. First, was the madness of a street fight I responded to one night. I was working graveyard shift in my early police career (Spokane PD), and patrons from a bar emptied into the street at Queen and Market. A fight commenced that required just about every police officer in the city, as well as many Spokane County Deputies. We arrested 16 people, and a couple of our SPD guys had to make stops at Holy Family ER, before heading in to the jail to book in prisoners. That was one of my early police experiences with total and complete madness, and will not be one ever forgotten.

Another Hillyard memory is also police related. It involves the former US Bank location. I did a lot of robbery training for the staff at this former bank branch, with a very good friend and mentor Richard “Dick” Long who was the security director for ONB and later US Bank. Dick was such a good friend, that when he passed away, police department photographs of he and I doing training in Hillyard, became a much better memory than the total madness of the huge street fight at Queen and Market.

Since there is some historical value, generally, I am going to have to visit Hillyard after sunset, and see what things look like. I’ll have to deal with some parked cars, and considerable northbound traffic, but if I don’t like what I capture, it does not have to make it onto the web.

South Perry also has car parking and traffic flow, but there is something about what has transformed that small area into something very attractive, at least in daylight. To be sure, there are some police memories of mine in this area, too. The south Perry district was always good for an armed robbery or two, at the same locations (still is). Over the years, some really strange things happened in this area, but armed robberies seemed to be the bulk of my memories up there.

Today might be the day I can visit the South Perry district. I have a visit to the area on an unrelated issue, so maybe bringing some camera gear might give me the opportunity (if there is one) of capturing the South Perry district after dark.

JDM