For as long as I can remember, I have lived in the same apartment building on the same street in Flushing, Queens. Even though I did live with my grandparents in China until I was four, the memories of my toddlerhood only exist as faint vignettes now. Fortunately, I am glad to say that I have never personally had a bad experience with the NYPD. However, I do remember two instances where I have interacted with the police: the first was when the lock on our apartment door broke and we called the police out of fear that someone had broken in; the second was when my mother’s workplace was burglarized.
Both of these incidents occurred when I was still fairly young. I don’t remember the year or my exact age, but I think I was either finishing elementary school or just starting middle school – a preteen. Since my parents did not consider me old enough to stay home alone yet and they both did not get home until 8 or 9 PM, my parents paid my neighbor to pick me up from my afterschool and I ate dinner at their house on the weekdays. After dinner, I would do my homework or read books until my mom or dad came to pick me up. One night, as my mom was unlocking the door, she noticed that it seemed jammed and wouldn’t open. She tried for a good ten minutes, but the lock would not budge. Eventually, my dad got home as well and we ended up calling the police for help. They managed to get the door open, and suggested that we get a new lock because ours were nearly ten years old.
I don’t remember when the robbery at my mom’s workplace happened, but it was after the problem with our door lock. At the time, my mom worked at a nail salon in Staten Island, and she would take me with her on Sundays and I’d spend the day with her friend’s children. She and three other workers worked the opening shift, and when they walked inside the store they saw drawers strewn on the floor, chairs toppled over, and a desk lamp that was still turned on. The police were called immediately, but they took over half an hour to show up. The burglars were already gone, but we later learned that they had entered through the store’s bathroom; they dug a tunnel from the building next door through to the bathroom and had left with a few hundred dollars in cash.
In both of my encounters with the police, they were kind but professional, so even though I have heard and read about many stories of police brutality around the nation and in New York, I can’t say that I personally relate with any of those incidents. However, the fact that police officers often do use excessive force when confronting civilians is still troubling. Even though the city’s crime rate has been declining steadily, there remains room for improvement – for police and civilians alike – in the effort to keep New York safe.
