|
|
|
Sometimes it gets tough to write stuff. I've been looking for material, but
it's all familiar ground. For instance, Condoleeza Rice. She had her fifteen
minutes of fame today, but it was shared by Richard Ben-Veniste, who was on a
split-screen with her, smirking while she was testifying. It looked like a
setup to me. I haven't seen split-screens before. Either the witness is on
or the interrogator is, but not both together. Ben-Veniste was a Watergate
inquisitor. He did everything but wear a hood while boring in on the witnesses.
As to whether or not he played fair with them, William Safire or Fred
Thompson could answer that. They were participants, but I was only one of the
millions of spectators and I don't recall enough to pass judgment.
Touching a little more on Watergate before re-entry to the present, I've
enjoyed the revelations of G. Gordon Liddy more than I enjoyed the hearings in
1973. Liddy adopted the findings of Leonard Colodny and Robert Gettlin in their
book "Silent Coup" that his Watergate burglary had actually been ordered by
John Dean for the purpose of destroying evidence of a prostitution ring
serving the Democrats in which Dean's wife was involved. One of the Demos sued him
for this, but the judge held the evidence was sufficient to the point that he
couldn't find malice in Liddy publicizing the theory. People who didn't live
through Watergate won't care about his, but those of us who did have an
unsatisfied hunger for explanation that follows us wherever we go.
Still looking for inspiration I went back to my police department ragpile of
reports, mostly my own, which I wrote back in the 70's. Right away the same
one jumped to the top that I mentioned in this space a few weeks ago. It's the
saga of Detective Marino, the ambitious fellow whose appetite for work could
only be satisfied by taking a second job as assistant manager at a Burger
King. He had been there only a week before he looked up from searching for
ketchup under the counter to find a big ugly Magnum being held against his chest by
one of three robbers who told him to empty his cash registers for them. Being
the type he was, he argued about it before he did it, but he did it. Then he
followed orders to lie down behind the counter while the robbers left.
Looking up this time, he saw the door closing after them and went into action. He
didn't waste time running out the door behind them, he ran straight to the
place where you really meet the customers, the takeout window. He had his
revolver, which he would have lost, along with his life, if the thugs had come
behind the counter.
"Assuming a combat stance" as he told me, he opened fire on the robbers as
they got into their car. In a panic, they burned rubber getting out of the
lot, but they got away.
They got caught later, I hope. (I only had to respond to emergencies, not
follow them up, so I didn't find out). I wouldn't have been surprised if it
happened when they were admitted to a hospital for treatment of shock. After
all, there's only so much strain one's nerves can bear. I mean, you do a job
where you're petty keyed up as it is and then this happens! A wild man blazing
away at you through a takeout window! A takeout window! Where they serve
hamburger, not bullets! Just when you're splitting and you think it's all
over! One more shot and it would have been all over! It was enough to send
anyone to the couch.
Whatever the outcome, at least it can be said that it gave everyone involved
a story to tell their grandchildren. Let's hope that the right people are the
ones who have the grandchildren.
The Battle of the Takeout was exceptional, but there were plenty of other
action-packed items in the file, to which I'll be referring from time to time.
These incidents came and went as chance would have it, but they didn't affect
the rhythm of the police department. The P.D. went on at its own pace with its
own priorities, unaffected by sensational events that might interfere with
the smooth operation of the machine.
What were the priorities? What weren't? The main source of information was
the series of monthly meetings at the Borough Office. The Borough Commander
stood before his captains and relayed the latest word as received by him at the
Citywide meeting in Police Headquarters. After a while we got to know what
to expect and even to be disappointed if some regular topic was omitted. But
we didn't worry; we knew it would be back next month.
One was summonses. Always on the agenda. There's no quota, but please, try
and get some action out of your guys, willya?.
Another was overtime. Some people are too ambitious and work too hard.
Watch out for them. Don't let them schedule their court appearances for their
days off. If you can't curb them any other way, switch 'em to a desk job.
Holiday Crime Prevention. The holidays are approaching (any holidays). Look
out for pickpockets and purse snatchers. Don't give all your people the day
off. Keep a few of them around.
Telephones. Do any of you have anybody around who can answer a phone?
Twenty rings is too long to wait. No, I'm not kidding, it's not the department
standard, no matter what some of those guys think.
Parking. The cops' contract says we've got to provide them parking to the
extent possible. They want the impossible. Do your best. Don't push it off
on the Borough. Nobody's got parking over here.
Portable radios. We've lost some more of them. I don't want to hear any
jokes about using smoke signals instead. Hang on to those things. They cost
money.
Crime. Last but not least, supposedly. Actually when you make this No. 40
on a list of topics to be discussed, it can't be anything but last. But this
where it could sometimes be found. Housekeeping was more important. Crime was
simply a natural phenomenon which obeyed its own laws and advanced and
receded regardless of anything cops could do. Only it advanced a lot more than it
receded. I've written about how the City once "challenged" us to come up with
a 2% reduction in robbery. That was to be our ambitious goal for 1977. We
didn't make it, probably because no one thought it was worth making. I now
find that in 1979 the goal was 1%! This lallygagging went on for fifteen more
years until we entered the Age of Giuliani. Unfortunately I couldn't wait that
long, but for those who did the experience was like that of the pioneers
hearing the Seventh Cavalry coming to rescue their wagon train..
This will come out after Easter, so I wish all a Happy Easter retroactively.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
