Today was another very hot day in New York City.
My brother-in-law had a very unpleasant incident
today.
He is here on a visit and can't stand sitting home,
so he spends lots of time fixing bicycles and
ocassional light car-work at his friends' repair-shop garages.He loves to work and he refuses to take any money from me.
Today , as usual, he was in one of his friend's
repair shops.His friend had to leave the shop
for a short while.
It all started when he (my brother-in-law) went to fetch some water from an already opened fire
hydrant(he is very honest- if he did open the fire hydrant he would have told me). While he was filling a small
bucket a police car passed by. What my brother-in-law did was stupid I agree, he should have enough common sense to
know one cannot use the fire hydrant water for anything except for fire emergencies.It is his first trip to USA.
I know it is maybe asking too much,
but they (police officers)could have told him he can't do it and
give him a warning. I am a European and I came from
a communist country. Even there , if there was no signs the police officer would ask me for example:
"did you know you cannot walk on this park's grass and next time I'll give you a ticket" etc...
Well, the officers accused him of opening the fire hydrant and threatened to arrest him unless he showed some i.d. He showed to them his passport and was given two criminal summonces.
Even though this is a 90% Hispanic neighborhood,
neither one of the police officers spoke Spanish, and my brother-in-law does not speak any English.
He was scared and paged me to come and help him.
His inability to speak English made the police
officers even angrier and they went inside his friend's shop.
I came and spoke to these 2 police officers.
They were rude and went inside the repair shop
and wrote out 7 tickets for various violations,
mainly for no permits or licenses posted.
All 7 tickets were written out to my in-law's name
and his residing address.(My address of course).
I explained to them that my brother-in-law
just works here and
his name and home address should not be on these
7 summonces and that the owner should be back soon and the owner would know where all the permits and licenses are kept.
Furthermore there was the shop's name printed on the awning!
But the officers said the tickets were
written out already and that they will not change the name on the summonces and that the store's owner can come to court and take care of it.
Even though they were
speaking to me and I was the translator they turned away from me and gave the tickets to my brother-in-law in a "here's to you face" gesture.
The store owner came in but the officers did not want to speak to him or take any additonal info since the owner did not speak English.
My brother-in-law was humiliated.I could feel his
pain.
I am a very conservative caucasian U.S. citizen,
in USA since 1968.I always supported police
and always obeyed
the law.But what these 2 police officers
did was very cruel and heartless. Finally, I can understand how others feel about "us".
My brother-in-law had a very unpleasant incident
today.
He is here on a visit and can't stand sitting home,
so he spends lots of time fixing bicycles and
ocassional light car-work at his friends' repair-shop garages.He loves to work and he refuses to take any money from me.
Today , as usual, he was in one of his friend's
repair shops.His friend had to leave the shop
for a short while.
It all started when he (my brother-in-law) went to fetch some water from an already opened fire
hydrant(he is very honest- if he did open the fire hydrant he would have told me). While he was filling a small
bucket a police car passed by. What my brother-in-law did was stupid I agree, he should have enough common sense to
know one cannot use the fire hydrant water for anything except for fire emergencies.It is his first trip to USA.
I know it is maybe asking too much,
but they (police officers)could have told him he can't do it and
give him a warning. I am a European and I came from
a communist country. Even there , if there was no signs the police officer would ask me for example:
"did you know you cannot walk on this park's grass and next time I'll give you a ticket" etc...
Well, the officers accused him of opening the fire hydrant and threatened to arrest him unless he showed some i.d. He showed to them his passport and was given two criminal summonces.
Even though this is a 90% Hispanic neighborhood,
neither one of the police officers spoke Spanish, and my brother-in-law does not speak any English.
He was scared and paged me to come and help him.
His inability to speak English made the police
officers even angrier and they went inside his friend's shop.
I came and spoke to these 2 police officers.
They were rude and went inside the repair shop
and wrote out 7 tickets for various violations,
mainly for no permits or licenses posted.
All 7 tickets were written out to my in-law's name
and his residing address.(My address of course).
I explained to them that my brother-in-law
just works here and
his name and home address should not be on these
7 summonces and that the owner should be back soon and the owner would know where all the permits and licenses are kept.
Furthermore there was the shop's name printed on the awning!
But the officers said the tickets were
written out already and that they will not change the name on the summonces and that the store's owner can come to court and take care of it.
Even though they were
speaking to me and I was the translator they turned away from me and gave the tickets to my brother-in-law in a "here's to you face" gesture.
The store owner came in but the officers did not want to speak to him or take any additonal info since the owner did not speak English.
My brother-in-law was humiliated.I could feel his
pain.
I am a very conservative caucasian U.S. citizen,
in USA since 1968.I always supported police
and always obeyed
the law.But what these 2 police officers
did was very cruel and heartless. Finally, I can understand how others feel about "us".