Greenpoint
Lorven Pharmacy
Culture on the Cheap
Christmas With Q
Filed under: 11211, 11222, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic, Williamsburg, Williamsburg Brooklyn
(Or: Drinking On Duty)
Last night a good friend of mine— one who I do not see as often as I’d like to— came over for Christmas dinner. The reason I do not see her much is she is a bartender and as a result keeps “vampire hours”. Nonetheless my friend, who we will call “Q”, usually has a host of work stories to share when we do see each other. Some of them are very funny, some of them are not. Which brings me to the subject of this post: as we supped and were getting caught up the subject of the 94th Precinct arose. I found what she had to recount downright disturbing.
Q recounted to me numerous occasions when those who ostensibly protect and serve us would drop by her place of employment seeking something to drink. In uniform. On duty. When one such public servant requested a margarita Q felt compelled to point the beverage in question had alcohol in it. To wit he replied:
A margarita has alcohol in it?
The last time I checked they do. Or should. In any case I can personally attest that my buddy Q makes ’em strong!
Another time Q overheard one officer say to another:
What if (excised— supervisor) smells this on my breath?
Inasmuch as I understand it this issue was quickly resolved and they proceeded to imbibe. As you can imagine my friend does not feel very comfortable being asked by officers on duty to serve them alcoholic beverages. Can you blame her? After all, we are talking about a group of men and women who have to think on their feet and let us not forget: bear firearms. But as the evening wound down I came away with the distinct impression drinking on duty is a fairly common practice.
Why don’t they go to the Turkey’s Nest? Everyone knows they’ll give you drinks to go. That’s where the police go.
Q mused. This is a very good question. Perhaps someone should posit it to our new Commanding Officer?
Miss Heather
Comments
2 Comments on Christmas With Q
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SpillConspirator on
Sun, 26th Dec 2010 8:47 pm
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missheather on
Mon, 27th Dec 2010 8:54 am
I also had another experience with the 94th Precinct this week. I have a homeless, straight A college student staying with me until she can be placed in transitional housing. She’s a very shy, sweet girl. She needs to file a report with the NYPD about family members who are stealing her social security number, among other things. I spoke to a female 94th Precinct officer via phone, who told me that such a report could be made at this precinct and be transferred to the borough where the girl comes from. The next day when I brought the girl to the precinct to make the report, we were told that the report would have to be made in the precinct where she came from. Since I now had two conflicting versions from the 94th precinct, I attempted to call 311 from the precinct to make further inquiries. I also requested to speak to someone else at the precinct. I suggested the community affairs officer. I was denied. Furthermore, I was told that I was now in the precinct “unlawfully” because the officer told me “there’s nothing they can do”. Officer Kreb refused to give us any type of helpful information for her complaint or otherwise. Officer Kreb treated me badly in the short time I was there. He used his wording to imply that he would lock me up if we didn’t leave. I wasn’t yelling, cursing or anything of the sort. He was just annoyed that I asked too many questions and wasn’t giving up on the report. As involved as I am in this neighborhood, 94th Precinct officers are NEVER helpful to me. Once again, I left the precinct in tears, which is very much unlike me, as you know. It almost always feels like a hopeless experience to go to the 94th Precinct for help. It’s Christmas time, bad weather, lack of resources, lack of help… therefore there’s been no report made. Even the fact that the girl is homeless, didn’t make a lick of difference when speaking to Officer Kreb. He didn’t have one helpful suggestion to offer. Can you imagine what life is going to be like in Greenpoint once the homeless facility on McGuiness Blvd is open? The 94th Precinct will certainly not offer any emergency information to homeless residents in this community. If I can’t extract information from them, they certainly aren’t going to go out of their way and give it. I was thinking that it’s wiser to send a certified letter to the precinct. That way, I won’t be threatened with arrest for asking questions while trying to get help for someone.
A good friend of mine had an equally dissatisfying experience with them on (get this) Christmas. Apparently her landlord got a little too festive and elected to crank music all day. The police were called, once they ascertained that the person in question was the owner of the building they refused to do anything. One officer said something to the effect of “Hey, it’s Christmas.” And for this reason she was forced to listen to Polish euro-pop music at ear-searing volume well past 4:00 in the morning.
Otherwise, I find the prospect of people charged with protecting our public safety— who bear fire arms, I’ll remind you— drinking on the job very disturbing. I cannot honestly say I am surprised, though; I have had a person complain to me about dealing with an officer from our precinct who was clearly intoxicated. It would appear that some of our Finest do not think the rules they are charged to enforce pertain to them. I beg to differ. Ridiculous.
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