Friday, May 05, 2006
hollywood police precinct has there own walk of fame I guess...
I filed a compliant about the whole jaywalking (bullshit) incident right after it happened a few weeks ago. A sergeant called me back and we set up an appointment to meet and talk about it. My whole thing was that I just didn't want to be left feeling bitter, angry and abused. I didn't want those cops to just be able to go about their merry little hassle-ing business, as if the whole thing never occurred. It's the same reason that when I got doored by a cabby in NYC last year, I made him wait till the cops got there and took his information down (30 minutes is a long time for a busy cabbie in NYC to have to wait and not get passengers). I didn't want it to be just another part of his (the cop or the cabbie) life that he could simply just walk away from as if it never happened. I wanted there to be some sort of repercussion for dooring a biker or giving a stupid jaywalking ticket and being a complete asshole about it. I wanted them to be inconvenienced enough to make them think about what they would do the next time, how they would act the next time. Maybe that cabbie thinks twice about letting someone out in middle of E. 14th St. because he was inconvenienced enough by me to not want to be inconvenienced like that again.
My point in filing a complaint about the officer was to make the cops take the time to speak with me, even if nothing changed within the situation (meaning even if I still had to pay the whopping $114 ticket - which I did). I wanted them to have to look at me in the face and realize how ridiculous their behavior was that night. I wanted to not let them just get away with it like the big bullies that they are.
I set up a meeting with Sergeant Hall who was the Sergeant assigned to my case. He was impeccably nice when he called, gave me his cell phone number, offered to come to my house for a meeting, or let me come into the police precinct - I obviously chose the precinct. He said the citing officer would be there too, and we could all sit down and talk about what happened. I was nervous about the whole thing because who wants to talk to cops?? Who actually volunteers to talk to cops?? But I had a mission and this was important to me.
So I went to go meet with them. I rode my bike a few blocks over to the Hollywood precinct after work. Sergeant Hall greeted me in the lobby and took me to a backroom. he had some papers and a tape recorder. I saw his tape recorder and immediately wanted to kick myself for not bringing *my* tape recorder. I wish I had, because our conversation was actually very interesting. The citing asshole officer was not there and I was bummed about that. I really wanted to sit and talk rationally to him about his behavior, especially since he was in the process of training other officers. But apparently he was called to protect the Mayer of Lost Angeles from the more than usual number of death threats he has been receiving due to all the recent immigration issues.
Sergeant Hall explained to me that the citing officer (whose name I'm forgetting) is part of an elite unit in Lost Angeles that is trained to tell when someone is under the influence of drugs or whatever, and coax them into taking a piss test. Or something like that. He said that he has known him for years and couldn't believe my experience of him. He said he knew of quite a few other officers in the Hollywood precinct where he would not be surprised at that kind of behavior but that that officer is usually pretty calm and rational. I said my experience of him was not one that screamed calm and rational. I went over exactly what happened, complete with his comments about bike people (I didn't even have my bike with me at the time), and his comments about how he was having a bad day and how "lots of people are going to get tickets tonight". Sergeant Hall said I was actually the only one who got a ticket that night. I'm thrilled.
Sergeant Hall heard me out, sympathized with me, apologized for the behavior I experienced, and said that usually when they pull someone over for something like jaywalking, they either chew you out, OR they give you a ticket. Not both.
For whatever it's worth, he said he'd talk to the citing officer and the training officers that were there that night. Then he gave me his card and his cell phone number and said to please call if I had any trouble in the future, like maybe he could make it up to me somehow. Is that like a get out of jail free card? I'm not sure.
All in all it was good to talk to him - not because I think it will improve anything in how the cops treat people but because it let me express how fucked up I thought the whole thing was, and gave me a second to bitch back at them.
I still have to pay my ticket though, and that really, really sucks.
