My day ended with an assignment to check out a bomb scare. Kind of sounds like a movie, but this and everything I do at work is pretty real.

Sometimes that’s a bit difficult to remember. I’ve been really lucky in that the bad news I cover has usually happened to someone else.

Last Thursday I found myself in the dangerous later hours of the “Occupy Los Angeles” protest in the Bank of America plaza in downtown Los Angeles.

You can feel the tension when you’re standing in the middle of a scene like that. It was a tense scene that lasted for hours. There I was with a tight grip on my camera.

Tight enough to feel pain in my hands that I didn’t notice until later.

The day was overcast and grey. I was sweating and feeling a good deal of adrenaline pumping me up.

With so many cops around (and some of them were ones that know me), I probably should have felt safe.

Nope, not these days.

See, I’m friends with Carl Stein and a few other news people who were beaten by LAPD officers during the May Day demonstration a few years ago.

Heads rolled and things are supposed to be different now in the ranks of the LAPD.

It was still hard to shake the feeling that the cops likely wouldn’t discriminate if things got out of hand.

Plus, the 99% were kind of split on how they felt about us also. Some were sympathetic and it seemed like they appreciated our being there.

Others were trying to pick verbal fights with us as well as with the cops.

A few of the more vocal protestors just seemed to be looking to cause trouble and didn’t care about the cause as long as there was a good opportunity to be involved in some mayhem.

That’s just the feeling I got while standing out there.

At one point just prior to the deadline that was given for the protestors to clear out of the area, I got to walk into the middle of their “camp” where a group of them had linked arms to stage their final act of defiance.

A couple of them spoke to us. It was heartfelt and sincere. They were people who have had enough and were willing to risk being pepper sprayed and/or go to jail for their beliefs.

I haven’t been in the field shooting much lately. It felt like I was a little out of my element at first. I actually felt like I was rusty and that scared me more than anything.

It’s not combat. I’m not in that kind of immediate danger, but I do need to keep my eyes open and I need to be on my toes. These things don’t always end well and being a member of the media isn’t the safety shield that it might have once been.

The cops did their job and slowly made their arrests and cleared the property. They weren’t overly gentle with the protestors, but they didn’t abuse their authority.

There have been times when I’ve been all kinds of brave when out covering the news. Knocking on doors and not knowing who or what is on the other side is just a figurative and literal truth of what I sometimes have to do.

This wasn’t one of those times.

Like a trooper, I faced my fear and did my job, that’s about all I had to do. In fact, the police, the protestors and everyone who had a part, played it well.

I walked away glad that nothing more exciting happened. That was a great ending to the day.

Cue the music. Roll the credits. Now all I have to worry about is if there’s going to be a sequel.