From: [p--ov--h] at [prince.cs.columbia.edu] (Steve Popovich)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns
Subject: Re: police protection
Date: 03 Feb 1994 15:13:59 GMT
In-reply-to: [b--ja--n] at [teenage-mutant.ai.mit.edu]'s message of 3 Feb 1994 09:40:27 GMT

There was a story in Tuesday's New York Newsday about just how the
cops are protecting the people of New York City.  Here are some
excerpts that should give you the general idea.

Good Deed Punished
--------------------
Keith May had just gotten off the train at Kings Highway in Brooklyn
when he heard a woman's voice cry out.

"My bag!" she screamed.  "My bag!"

May didn't actually see the platform purse-snatch.  But he spun around
in time to watch four young men running away.  He figured he would try
to fetch some help.

...

When May reached the bottom of the platform stairs, he was relieved by
what he saw: A heavyset transit cop, in full uniform, standing just
inside the turnstiles.  As May rushed up, the cop was writing in his
summons book, and a young woman was standing at his side.

"Somebody's getting robbed upstairs," May told the officer.  The cop
kept writing, his eyes fixed on the summons book.

May tried again.  "Someone is getting robbed upstairs," he said.
Still, the cop acted like he hadn't heard a thing.  Starting to feel
frustrated, the young man tried once again.  "Hey," he said, his tone
rising now.  "Are you deaf?"  [Mistake #1 --ssp]

With that, the cop looked up.  But he still hadn't taken a step.

[May began walking away, discouraged, but thought he heard the victim
crying outside the station and walked back.]

"She's right outside," he told the officer.  He also used a vulgar
word.  [Mistake #2 --ssp] And then May turned to one of the riders who
had begun milling about.  "Let me borrow your pen so I can write his
badge number down," May said.  [Mistake #3 --ssp]

That is when the officer finally reacted.  "You want to get involved?"
May remembered the cop asking, just right before he grabbed the young
man by the arm.

[The next paragraph introduces the woman, a legal secretary named
Karen Brodie, who was receiving the summons for violating a rule
against smoking in the subway.]

The cop pushed May up against the turnstiles.  Then he took a pair of
handcuffs out.  He pulled May's arms behind him and snapped the cuffs
on tight.

"What did I do?" May was heard to ask.  "Why are you doing this?  What
am I being arrested for?"

[A small crowd of a dozen or more subway riders was gathering to watch
the events.]

The cop lifted his radio and made a call.  Officer needs assistance,
he said.  Unruly crowd at Kings Highway.

After another moment passed, the cop made another call.  Officer needs
assistance.

At about this time, May asked Karen Brodie, the woman who had received
the no-smoking summons, to please make a phone call for him.  "Call my
sister," he said.  "Tell her I'm being arrested here."  He told her
the sister's number, and Brodie went walking oward the phone.

But just after she finished dialing, the call was cut short.  The cop
walked up from behind and hung up the telephone.  Then he took Brodie
by the arm.  "You're under arrest," he said.

By now, the crowd was growing larger, although it was mostly people in
dresses and business suits.

When the backups came, they arrived with impressive force.

Six, eight, 10 other transit cops burst into the station, and they
collected the two young prisoners from the original cop.  Several
riders made comments.  "Why are you arresting them?" one woman asked.
"I can't believe this," said another rider, who happened to be a
lawyer with a big midtown firm.

The cops walked May and Brodie out of the station in handcuffs.  They
put them in separate police cars.  They drove them to the transit
police district office at Stillwell Avenue and held them there late
into the night.

May was charged with disorderly conduct, obstructing governmental
administration and resisting arrest.  Brodie was charged with the
first two offenses, although not with resisting arrest.  In the
week-and-a-half since all this happened, the criminal charges have
still not been dropped.

[The rest of the article talks about the complaints that the two have
filed against the officer in question, as well as the civil-rights
lawyers that they have hired to defend them from the charges and
represent them in a possible civil suit against the officer.  Oh, yes,
they also said that the police have not yet located the robbery
victim, much less the robbers.]
--------------------

So that's the way that the police "protect" us in NYC.
	-Steve