Thursday, April 14, 2005
The CATCH 22 of "Police harassment"
Here is a good story from patrol last night. It's 3am in front of the Amsterdam Housing Projects. A man has just been assaulted by two other men. The two suspects flee in different directions. The police get the description of the two perps and my partner and I start canvassing the area. The Hispanic perp gets picked up by another unit and is arrested. I'm still looking for the other one with the simple description of black male, 5'8", black coat, black ski cap. It's midweek and 3am so the streets are pretty much deserted (by Manhattan standards).
We spot a guy perfectly matching the description so we stop him, we explain the reason we stopped him and give him a quick pat down. All the while he is complaining about "police harassment" yadayadyayada. We let him listen to the radio transmission of the perps description so he can hear for himself that he matches. He continues to bitch anyway (this happens most the time). We put over the radio that we need a "show up", this is when they bring the victim to our location so he can make a positive or negative ID. While we are waiting for the show up, another guy who perfectly matches the description is walking by. I'm thinking to myself, this probably isn't our guy or he wouldn't be walking right by 2 cops but at the same time I'm thinking if I don't stop the new guy then the guy we already stopped will start whining about why we didn't stop him because he matches the description too. So I take pre-emptive action and stop the new guy. And who knows, maybe he is is our perp (criminals can be really stupid). He instantly starts complaining about "police harassment".
So while these two guys are whining in chorus, a third guy walks by. Of course he's also around 5'8", black male, wearing a black coat and black ski cap. Mind you, these are the only 3 people that walked by the entire time. So now we got three guys stopped. And all 3 are going on about police harassment. One guy saw the assault take place and another guy saw the victim talking to the police. They heard the description over the radio and they all acknowledge that they match the description. It's not like we are making this stuff up just so we can harass them, and they know it. In the end, the show up had negative results and all 3 were free to leave. We had all come to the conclusion that if you don't want to be stopped by the police then don't wear a black coat and black ski cap.
Here is a good story from patrol last night. It's 3am in front of the Amsterdam Housing Projects. A man has just been assaulted by two other men. The two suspects flee in different directions. The police get the description of the two perps and my partner and I start canvassing the area. The Hispanic perp gets picked up by another unit and is arrested. I'm still looking for the other one with the simple description of black male, 5'8", black coat, black ski cap. It's midweek and 3am so the streets are pretty much deserted (by Manhattan standards).
We spot a guy perfectly matching the description so we stop him, we explain the reason we stopped him and give him a quick pat down. All the while he is complaining about "police harassment" yadayadyayada. We let him listen to the radio transmission of the perps description so he can hear for himself that he matches. He continues to bitch anyway (this happens most the time). We put over the radio that we need a "show up", this is when they bring the victim to our location so he can make a positive or negative ID. While we are waiting for the show up, another guy who perfectly matches the description is walking by. I'm thinking to myself, this probably isn't our guy or he wouldn't be walking right by 2 cops but at the same time I'm thinking if I don't stop the new guy then the guy we already stopped will start whining about why we didn't stop him because he matches the description too. So I take pre-emptive action and stop the new guy. And who knows, maybe he is is our perp (criminals can be really stupid). He instantly starts complaining about "police harassment".
So while these two guys are whining in chorus, a third guy walks by. Of course he's also around 5'8", black male, wearing a black coat and black ski cap. Mind you, these are the only 3 people that walked by the entire time. So now we got three guys stopped. And all 3 are going on about police harassment. One guy saw the assault take place and another guy saw the victim talking to the police. They heard the description over the radio and they all acknowledge that they match the description. It's not like we are making this stuff up just so we can harass them, and they know it. In the end, the show up had negative results and all 3 were free to leave. We had all come to the conclusion that if you don't want to be stopped by the police then don't wear a black coat and black ski cap.
