Back then, a cop could and did meter out his own justice. We all knew most cops were crooked. In our neighborhood in College Point, we had good and bad. They would park in a commercial area and drink instead of doing their rounds. We saw this many times.
They took bribes. If a cop got a complaint about you, he might take you for a ride, and give you a talking to and or a few whacks.
So, in 1965, when I was 14 I got to see the back seat of a cop car.....
We kids hung out down Grantville, a place by Flushing Bay, across from LaGuardia airport. My friend Jean was there and a bunch of boys. About 5 of us were sitting on the cliff. There were boys setting off fireworks on the beach (illegal). Another group of boys were playing penny poker near us (illegal).
Someone yelled COPS! The boys on the beach and playing poker all ran towards us. The cops yelled for all of us to go by the car. They asked Jean and me our ages and told us to get in the backseat of the car because we were minors. The cops are still outside talking to the boys.
Jean shows me what is in her pocketbook. It is a GIANT KNIFE! She is crying. My cousin Brian use to tease her all the time and she would tell him, "one day I am going to stab you with a knife!" so today was the day she brought a knife. Jean had long lashes and she would put on thick mascara on her upper and lower lashes. She put it on so thick it would clump. Now she has black rivers going down her face because she is crying.
I am thinking, if they look in her purse we are going to JAIL! I am so scared I can't even talk. The cops get in and start driving us home. She is hysterical, begging not to be taken home, she will NEVER hang out down there again...etc. I don't have to say anything she is begging and crying enough for the both of us.
We are passing the Club Safari and I scrunch down in the seat so no one can see me. My brother in laws family own it. In this town if a cop car passes with someone in the back seat we always look to see if we know who it is.
I am thinking, its a nice day, my mother will be outside with the neighbor mothers and here I come in a cop car.
She will beat me twice, once for doing something so wrong the cops had to take me home and once for embarrassing her in front of all the neighbors.
They turn on 25th road and 122nd street and stop. Two blocks from home.
They tell me we will let you off here, give me your address and don't lie, we will check up. I give them the only house address I know by heart which is my friend Maria's address who lives 3 houses up from me.
They leave and I can still hear Jean begging and crying as they turn the corner and go to the other side of town where Jean lived. She did keep her word, she never hung out there again.
About a week later, Maria's mother(who did not speak English but understood it) is outside sweeping her stoop and sidewalk when a cop car pulls up.
They ask her if she has a teenage daughter. She says yes and they leave. Maria came home from school and her mother beat the crap out of her asking her WHY were the COPS asking about her! What did she DO! And she got punished for a weekend.
To this day, I did not tell her it was my fault. I could tell her because we are still friends on FB. But I don't think I will.......
