Great chase story *

It's not quite O.J. Simpson-in-a-white Bronco, but it's still a premium-grade L.A. police chase tale. During yesterday's press conference to remember the 1997 North Hollywood police shootout, the cameras — and blogger Zach Behrens — were all in place when sirens approached and helicopters buzzed overhead. A full-on LAPD chase zoomed past on Laurel Canyon Boulevard — and the fleeing suspect flipped the bird at the mayor and police chief.

* Noted: Daniel Hernandez of the LA Weekly witnessed it too and found the whole episode bizarre: "It was one of the those perfectly unscripted moments of cosmic synergy, happening right before our eyes at a Ralphs parking lot on Laurel Canyon Boulevard...And what were we doing here, exactly? Difficult to say. The shooting that started at the Bank of America across the street wasn’t especially tragic. No officers or civilians died. It wasn’t a major turning point in LAPD or city history, aside from giving the department a needed morale boost after the Rodney King debacle....Reporters were left scratching their heads. “Are they going to bring out a cake in the shape of a machine gun?” someone quipped."