Political Mama

Yesterday my cleaning lady told me a story:

She had just come home and parked her car out front. It was 7:15. Fifteen minutes later the neighbor called, frantic. He'd seen two boys they knew--aged 12 and 17, break into her car.

She ran frantically outside to discover that all the money she'd made that week was stolen along with her spare set of keys. Was it dumb to leave that stuff in her car? Sure. She had it all in one of those big dayplanners that has room for pockets so it didn't really look like a wallet--still not the best idea.

She then called the police. It was 7:20. She drove around the neighborhood, located the boys, asked please for her money back, and called the police again. It was 8:00. They still weren't at her house where her daughter waited.

Furious, she confronted them. Of course they denied that they had anything, and kept right on doing what they were doing.

Her son went personally to the police station and told the police he could take them right to the boys. They said he had to wait until the officers came to the house.

She started getting scared as night fell, and the boys went home for dinner. It was 9:00. The Suffolk County (New York) Police (one of the highest paid departments in the country--$125,000 with overtime) got to her house at 11:30, and swore the detective would call her in the morning, which he never did!

I know, for a fact, that they would have been at my house within the hour. For the first time I realized where vigilantism comes from.

I can't imagine why poor/minority folk don't trust the cops.