Of Ball and Bus

The Chargers’ 31-23 win over the Philadelphia Eagles led National City police to close off some streets on Sunday, November 16, at about 5 p.m. Fans cruising the streets had Chargers flags waving and horns honking. Police cars with flashing lights blocked off Highland Avenue. Several bus routes were diverted and many riders were upset.

“Why did you have to shut the street down? I needed to catch that bus — 929!” shouted Maria Santiago while confronting one of the National City police officers.

“Too much cruising is going on, so we shut the streets down,” responded the officer. “That bus could have gone through our blockade.”

“Don’t feel too bad,” said Aziz Jabbar who was on the corner of Plaza and Highland. “On certain weekends [some people] gather over there at the Walmart parking lot and have all kinds of fighting. Tonight the cops didn’t want anything like that to happen. I normally take the route 962 or the 955. Those had to get diverted too!”

Drivers of cruising cars were eventually told to move on to avoid getting arrested. After an hour, the streets were reopened at around 6 p.m.