Empty bullet casings litter Sauer street, blue lights flash and a dejected robber sits handcuffed in the back of a police van. Cops and robbers had had a shoot out in the centre of Johannesburg, two people injured and a bad guy arrested.

The dejected robber on Sauer street
Picture by Antoine de Ras

We stood behind the yellow tape, hunting for scrapes of information as more and more cops arrived.

Cops do this, they rush to a crime scene and then just hangout.

They call it a stand down, they climb out of their patrol cars, huddle in groups and bum cigarettes off each other.

Then they talk, of other more spectacular crime scenes, of touch and go shootouts or about that new blonde with the cute ass in Flying Squad.

One of the cops notices me and sidles up.

“You know I get so angry when people shot…