Three Cops

Setting: Subway Platform. Q Train.

Who: Three Black Cops. Two Males. One Female.

Waiting for the subway on the platform is really nothing to write home about. There are usually about ten total spots on benches for people to sit (although rumor has it that bed bugs make shop in those so no thank you). As one usually has to stand and should be on their guard while waiting, the platform provides ample opportunity to observe others.

Due to heighten and constant security alerts, several stations have police officers stationed at them. On one brisk morning last week I noticed three of them standing next to each other and I decided to get close enough to hear but not close enough that I would get caught staring at their guns. (Come on, I'm not the only one who does that)

I feel bad for these cops. They have to stand on the platforms and just monitor. Some of the subway stations are above ground which can be literally freezing in the winter time. Moreover, what they carry on their belts makes them look less like cops and more like a cross between Batman and a carpenter without a tool box.

As I leaned against a pillar waiting for the train I was delighted to hear of the vacation plans that two black male cops were discussing with one black female cop.

Cop A: Male, Tall, Skinny

Cop B: Male, Short, chunky, baby face

Cop C: Female, tallish, short hair

Cop C: "Got my vacation coming up in December. Gonna be nice."

Cop B: "Where you going? Jamaica?"

Cop C: "Nope. Barbados."

Cop A: "That's nice. Didn't you go last year?"

Cop C: "Yeah I did. It was either there or Trinidad"

Now, as I heard these three destinations I began to think. There seems to be an unusually high amount of people that live in New York who take vacations to Caribbean islands. I have never been to the Caribbean but I'd like to go someday. But I have never heard the people who want to go to the Caribbean talk about any other destination/city/country besides New York and the Caribbean. But this was not why I chose to write about their conversation although you can tell by the way Cop A asked Cop C that she went to Barbados last year that this is a reoccurring thing.

Here is the best part...

Cop A: "How much time you getting off?"

Cop C: "I hope ten days but captain been pulling some shit lately."

Cop B: "What you mean?"

Cop C: "I just don't like how he be handling some shit sometimes. Like tell me this. How come when we arrest the black kids we keep them over night but when we arrest the Jews, they get let out the back door?"

Cop A at this point put up his hands and pretending to walk away as to distance himself from the oh-so-smart Cop C.

I wonder what they do if they arrest someone who is Jewish and black. But maybe the cop doesn't understand one is an ethnicity and the other a religion. Or maybe half the time they keep the person overnight after they arrest them and the other half of the time they let 'em go.

Well I say to you Cop C: that is a darn good question! Let me answer that question with a few others. How do you know the folks you sometimes arrest are Jewish? Is there a survey similar to the SAT test where one has the option to state their religion(s)?

I can picture it now....

Setting: Streets of Manhattan

Who: Young man being arrested by a cop

"You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law... and do you keep kosher?"