One of the boys apologized as he walked by. “We’re just playing, don’t worry”, he said. I believed him. I’m sure these boys were just bored and were picking on the middle-aged couple they found in their path. It reminded me of my group of friends growing up on the streets, which worried me a little. I realized that in my group, I would have been that child that apologized. Unfortunately, the other kids would have been hormone riddled, violent and looking for trouble. Not because they had any specific problem with anyone in the neighborhood, you understand, but it’s easy for a little episode like this one to get out of hand. Had my darling pursued them, for instance, or yelled something rude; had I cowered as if I were afraid of them … any number of responses may have turned this rather mild occurrence into something horrific.
I went upstairs and put in a call to the local police precinct. I explained what happened, making it clear that I didn’t really want to make a big thing out of this, but these children were on a path that might end up badly. I didn’t want to be responsible, by my silence, for somebody else encountering these children and getting in over their head.
What surprised me about this was the bored tone of the gentleman on the other end of the phone. He didn’t ask my name or address, but promised to send a car around to take a look. He didn’t seem concerned that one of his citizens had actually been hit by something thrown by these children. This cavalier attitude toward my story upset me somewhat and I can tell you why. People here in Queens are convinced that the police are not really here to help. They seem to be right where they need to be the moment the registration on my car expires, they are extremely good at arresting people for smoking a joint or giving tickets to people for driving without a seat belt, but don’t expect them to show up if you think there’s an actual problem. They could never help any of the times my car was vandalized or the one time it was stolen. When I was attacked in the park, they didn’t even pretend to look for the man … it’s true, they’re never around when you need them. However, should you encounter a police officer, you can make a pretty sure bet that he’ll be looking for a reason to intimidate you.
It seems that law enforcement has taken a turn toward financial interests rather than the actual safety and security of the citizens. Anything that might make the city a buck is fair game. They are not in prevention mode, ever. They make a good show of whipping the city into shape, and crime is definitely down. It’s just that the police are not a comfort to me. I wish they were. I would love to feel that we were in this together. I get the distinct sense that we consider each other a different species, that we see each other as the enemy, and I wonder why it needs to be this way.
I realize that these are dedicated people, and I’m sure that the majority of the police officers in this city went into this line of work in order to help people and be an effective, safeguarding part of the community. Somewhere down the line, these people seem to lose heart, to lose touch with the people. They seem to lose respect for the very people they were hired to protect. Plus, there’s that old ‘power corrupts’ adage.
I could cite a hundred instances where the police did ‘the wrong thing’. I haven’t had many terrible experiences on the street, so it may be that they would be right on top of things were I to need them for a real emergency. However, I wonder why I don’t trust them, why I worry when I meet a police officer, why I feel that they aren’t really on my side. Perhaps they can only deal with the horrific, never the mundane events of ordinary lives. How sad for all of us.
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