Stop and Frisk A very Personal View

Dear kindly Sergeant Krupke
You gotta understand
It's just our bringin' up-ke
That gets us out of hand
Our mothers all are junkies
Our fathers all are drunks
Golly Moses, natcherly we're punks!

Gee, Officer Krupke, we're very upset;
We never had the love that every child oughta get
We ain't no delinquents
We're misunderstood
Deep down inside us there is good!

There is good!

There is good, there is good
There is untapped good!
Like inside, the worst of us is good!

From West Side Story



This week in the WSJ Jason Riley wrote an opinion piece "Bloomberg Grovels Over Stop and Frisk".
In the article Mr. Riley, who happens to be black, argues that given the overwhelming success the program had in reducing the murder rate in NY City that in fact it was a means of saving thousands of Black lives.  Mr Riley observed that in his opinion the murder and crime rate dropped like a rock from the program and Mr Bloomberg should not apologize for the program (which apparently he has).

Now I am not sure one can attribute it all to stop and frisk, but the article stirred an interesting memory from my adolescent years.  It is a story I do not think I shared with anyone that I can recall, not even with my "faithful and Obedient Companion".  It has also induced me reflect on both the current societal views on police use of  perceived intimidation and the effectiveness of "community policing". However,  before I relate this incident I have to first share my childhood memories of my father and what I personally observed running errands with him in the Philadelphia neighborhood known as "Kensington". 

You all might recall the movie "Rocky" which was filmed on location in Kensington, which in the 50's 60's and early 70's was a tough white working class neighborhood.  ( In fact, I was a member of a Boys Scout troop in this neighborhood and as a result had many friends there  even though it was pretty far from my own neighborhood.  How that happened is a story I will not bore you with) Anyway, my father walked the beat in Kensington in his first years on the force.

As a young child I would often go with my dad to his old "beat" where  he  was well known and was friends with many of the merchants there.  At Woodsie's gas station he would have his car worked on and he bought his beer at the Kensington beer distributor.   When possible he had  family prescriptions filled at the drugstore at Frankford and Allegheny Avenues, which was incidentally where my boy scout troop was located.  All of these merchants were an integral part of the community.  At each of them the owners awed me with stories of my Dad as I sat and listened to them chat.   You see in those days he was seen as a regular member of the neighborhood.   When he had walked the beat if  their kids "got out of line" he did not run them in to the station....he dragged them home to their parents.  Often after whacking them with a nightstick on the ass. He was not hated for this why? Well he also coached the local PAL baseball team, one which I played on one year.  He always felt he was a part of that community.  Naturally these stories highly influenced my perception of "what a good cop was".

My father eventually went on to work in Juvenile aid (a job that affected him severely, seeing the lasting damage caused by  kids from broken homes).  He eventually moved on and became a detective working in Center City, the Vice Squad and then Major Theft.  Ultimately he became the head of the Mayor of Philadelphia's security detail.   I could tell lot's of humorous stories about that...like getting a job painting the Mayor's row house, or the time my younger sister "borrowed" the Mayors city owned limo to joy ride with her friends.!

All this background is needed because it relates to my story and my Observations.  A story I now share for the first time.

As a sophomore in high school I was hanging out on a street corner near our church with a couple of friends. Low and behold a black and white pulled up and two police officers jump out, yelling at us to get  the "f" in the car.  We then and proceed to drive around the neighborhood with them telling us this was their neighborhood and we better remember that.  They even pounded their nightsticks on the car seats in a very threatening way.  Needless to say my two friends were scared shitless but my own reaction was very calm and polite, saying yes officer etc.  No doubt my attitude at the time was likely  because I had some sense that if I actually told my father this story, especially if they somehow hurt us, he and the mayor might get really pissed off.   After about  10  minutes of verbal harassment they dropped us off a few blocks away with a "remember we are always watching".  I never told my dad or anyone else the story.

So now to my Observations;

First my own attitudes about police where set at a very young age through a very "jaded lens".  It was very difficult at the time (and still is) to see police as my "enemy" even when being harassed.  But my two friends likely had a very different perspective.  Cops jumping out of cars instead of stopping and chatting as they "walked the beat" every day seem much less a part of "the neighborhood.  Personally I see the former as much more effective.

Second efforts to make the police seen as part of the neighborhood seem to have failed particularly among many of our "big city" police departments.  Even as crime has dropped since the late 90's.  Perhaps if parents of young juveniles had their kids dragged home for minor offenses instead of booked we might see more cooperation.  However the problem is in most inner city homes these days is "who would be there to drag them home too"?

Third the pervasive drug culture has turned delinquents into hard core criminals at an early age.

Finally this, there is no doubt there are some very  "bad cops" (though in my heart I believe the vast majority are not).  Even back then I knew a few and so did my Dad.  I often wondered in private whatever became of those two cops who picked us up that day.  If they were bad apples maybe I should have told him.  Interestingly when Frank Rizzo became mayor he asked my Father to head up his security detail.  My father turned him down and retired.  Why?  He felt Rizzo was a fascist.  He told me he had to retire because by turning him down his career as a police officer was over.  Yet so many "Pro-Police" people thought he was great.  Go figure.

At any rate and regardless of  the reasons it saddens me to see our society at odds on this issue.  We need police, and we need their work to effectively improve our lives.  When large portions of society view them as the enemy we are all diminished.


With that I bid you adieu.