A tribute to the incompetence of the NYPD's 19th Precinct
04-14-2002, 01:48 PM
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A tribute to the incompetence of the NYPD's 19th Precinct
I try to maintain respect for cops. I really do. But when they do something like this, the rebel, Rage Against the Machine fan in me rises up and wants to declare war on the [insert cute noun here] that run our society...
Last night, I was in New York City with my friends. We were leaving the city at about 2:30 to head home. There were 5 of us in a Honda Accord (full, but not overloaded) heading down 92nd street. My friend Steve (stone sober) was driving.
We were pulled over between 2nd and 3rd avenue. The cops came to the window and asked why Steve ran the red light. Mind you, I don't pay a lot of attention when I'm not driving, but I am absolutely 100% positive that we did not run a red light. It was green as Kermit when we went through it.
I figured at this point that it was a chop-busting session, given 5 heads, Jersey plates and the time of night. So they ask Steve to get out of the car, do the sobriety stuff, and he's fine. They bring him back to the cruiser and breathalyze him. He's gone for about 15 mintues. When he returns, he says everything is fine, but they still have the license, registration and insurance.
He obviously passed the test or they would have not let him come back to the car (right?). Another twenty minutes pass and suddenly, the cruiser pulls up along side us and the cop says "There's a fight up the street. We'll be back. Don't go anywhere."
Various four-letter words later, we are still sitting there, now at the total whim of a pair of cops that are behaving strangely, to say the least. There's a commotion a few blocks back, but we stay put.
I'll say another 30 mintues pass this time. Next, another (different) cruiser pulls up to us and informs us that the officers had located the insurance and registration, but they could not locate Steve's driver's license. They said "it may be back at the Precinct." So they told us to follow them back.
More four-letter-words and we're in the 19th Precinct. The desk Seargant is the pinnacle of manners and helpfulness (sarcasm) and it takes another twenty minutes or so to get out of here. Once they handed Steve back his registration and insurance, they informed him that his license had been "lost" and that they would fill out a form that would "most likely waive the fees to get a new one in NJ."
We're all boiling at this point as it is now 4:15 in the morning and we have things to do on Sunday. As soon as Steve was holding his reg and insurance cards, I asked for the badge numbers of both the officers involved with the stop and the two officers behind the desk. Many snide remarks later, I have all the information I requested. We received official complaint forms (hah!) and were on our not-so-merry-way.
They obviously completely abused their power that night (and I'm not even convinced the license was lost). Steve is not a confrontational guy, and he was completely responsive and helpful to the officers. He maintained a mature attitude the entire time (even when they told him his license was gone). No one was beligerant. We weren't speeding. We didn't even run that light.
What can we do in terms of filing a complaint that we are sure gets back to (and some how adversely effects) the officers involved? The fact that Steve now has to deal with the NJ DMV due to their incompetence last night is just WRONG -- so what do we do? Is anything worth the breath and ink?
Last night, I was in New York City with my friends. We were leaving the city at about 2:30 to head home. There were 5 of us in a Honda Accord (full, but not overloaded) heading down 92nd street. My friend Steve (stone sober) was driving.
We were pulled over between 2nd and 3rd avenue. The cops came to the window and asked why Steve ran the red light. Mind you, I don't pay a lot of attention when I'm not driving, but I am absolutely 100% positive that we did not run a red light. It was green as Kermit when we went through it.
I figured at this point that it was a chop-busting session, given 5 heads, Jersey plates and the time of night. So they ask Steve to get out of the car, do the sobriety stuff, and he's fine. They bring him back to the cruiser and breathalyze him. He's gone for about 15 mintues. When he returns, he says everything is fine, but they still have the license, registration and insurance.
He obviously passed the test or they would have not let him come back to the car (right?). Another twenty minutes pass and suddenly, the cruiser pulls up along side us and the cop says "There's a fight up the street. We'll be back. Don't go anywhere."
Various four-letter words later, we are still sitting there, now at the total whim of a pair of cops that are behaving strangely, to say the least. There's a commotion a few blocks back, but we stay put.
I'll say another 30 mintues pass this time. Next, another (different) cruiser pulls up to us and informs us that the officers had located the insurance and registration, but they could not locate Steve's driver's license. They said "it may be back at the Precinct." So they told us to follow them back.
More four-letter-words and we're in the 19th Precinct. The desk Seargant is the pinnacle of manners and helpfulness (sarcasm) and it takes another twenty minutes or so to get out of here. Once they handed Steve back his registration and insurance, they informed him that his license had been "lost" and that they would fill out a form that would "most likely waive the fees to get a new one in NJ."
We're all boiling at this point as it is now 4:15 in the morning and we have things to do on Sunday. As soon as Steve was holding his reg and insurance cards, I asked for the badge numbers of both the officers involved with the stop and the two officers behind the desk. Many snide remarks later, I have all the information I requested. We received official complaint forms (hah!) and were on our not-so-merry-way.
They obviously completely abused their power that night (and I'm not even convinced the license was lost). Steve is not a confrontational guy, and he was completely responsive and helpful to the officers. He maintained a mature attitude the entire time (even when they told him his license was gone). No one was beligerant. We weren't speeding. We didn't even run that light.
What can we do in terms of filing a complaint that we are sure gets back to (and some how adversely effects) the officers involved? The fact that Steve now has to deal with the NJ DMV due to their incompetence last night is just WRONG -- so what do we do? Is anything worth the breath and ink?
04-14-2002, 02:05 PM
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a lost drivers license isnt going to get much attention at IA so most likely your complaint will go
nowhere and since the officers Sgt. is the one in charge of disiplining them and you say he was one of the people you came in contact with I seriously doubt anything will be done :-/
04-14-2002, 02:41 PM
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i think N.W.A. said it best "F*CK Da Police!!!"
majority of them are losers from HS or College and are now getting even with everyone by abusing there "Power." what are you going to do though right?
04-14-2002, 02:49 PM
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uhhh, I would say that a very small minority might abuse their power, dont generalize about a
profession that you know nothing about, for every 'cop screwed me over story' there are thousands of situations where these "losers" put their lives on the line to protect strangers, think about that.
04-14-2002, 03:00 PM
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much agreed... but what about their shift captain, if they complain about the officers and the sgt.
maybe the cptn. will get involved and deal with it himself.. I've had my *** chewed by a captain before, not a fun ordeal.
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04-14-2002, 03:04 PM
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so am I, but alot of NYPD cops come out here to get jobs because of the higher pay, and they have
to deal with alot of sh*t in the city, so the dept dosent really break their ***** over minor things. alot of city cops arent the friendliest guys in the world but when you think of what they have to deal with, would you be ?