Home
Buy Book
Blog/Wall
Press
Calendar
Gallery
Heidi Kole
Music
Videos
Mailing List
Bio
Film/TV
Contact

Posts tagged: Police Abuse

Apr 26 2011

Damn Cops!

categories The Subway Diaries - Adventures of a Subway Musician | | comments Comments (9)

categories , , , , , , , ,

Seriously – there’s other stuff to do down there in the trains than mess w/ me to save your job!!!

Damn Cops! Ticket – summons – court! All surpassed the ridiculous tonight. This cop passed by me, listed for over 45 minutes, smiled and said nothing, not a thing, nada! Then, out of the blue he comes up behind me & says “Ummmm…do you have an ID? I’m sorry but I’m gonna have to write you a ticket, you’re gonna get a summons & you’ll have to go in front of the judge, but it’s all bullshit so he’ll dismiss it.By the way, are there any warrants out for your arrest? Tell me, honestly, ’cause if you  don’t I’ll get in trouble”
“No, no warrants Officer Chin” I answered, grabbing his name from his badge and name tag
“You’re sure, right? I mean everyone says that but you’re  sure  there are no warrants out for you?”
“As far as I know, nothing” I bit  my  tongue at this  point as I was itching to sing as me and the audience were having a very good night underground
“Ok, well, I ‘ll go on your word ’cause I don’t want to go back up there and see  my supervisor to run your ID through the system.  So, here’s the deal, once I”be given you the ticket, you can keep on playing. I just have to show my supervisor that I”m doing something or else I get fired. See, there was apparently this guy with a gun that we were looking for and because I did not find him  my  supervisor thinks I’ve not been  doing anything. So, I’m gonna have to write you up so it looks like I’ve done something, otherwise I’ll get in trouble.”
wtf!!!
“Really? I can  keep singing even  after you’ve  given me a summons? But what about your  supervisor?”
“Oh, she’s super lazy, she’ll never  come  down here, believe me. She never  does  anything but  sit up there”  and he  pointed up to the landing above me where I guess the ‘grand mistress’ that is  the new female “Lazy Lieutenant’ resided
As officer Chin wrote the ticket he  kept chatting saying; “Yeah, I told the Lieutenant I was doing my job, I was down here, right? You saw me right? I was doing my job. But she saw me resting once and said “What are you doing, go do something useful” So, yeah, now I have to write  you up or I’ll get fired.”
“So, why me, and not the guy playing piano across the platform?
“Oh, he’s just lucky. I just saw you first. But don’t worry, it’s all bullshit. Hmmmm…I don’t even know what to write this up for. I guess I’ll just put that you’re blocking traffic”
Blocking traffic? Blocking traffic? Seriously? God – where was my tape recorder!!! I mean the entire conversation was beyond absurd!!!It was eight thirty at  night on he Downtown A,C,E Port  Authority and barely an audience member around. Although the few people sitting on the bench watching this  whole thing in awe  had  been  a fabulous audience just a few minutes prior and for that I was supremely  grateful.
Anyway, as  rediculous as this act was on the cop’s part, now I’m ‘on record’ which means if another cop  decides to save his or her ass at my expense before the court date of July 11th, 2011,   I go to jail. Seriously, you couldn’t make this stuff up….it’s beyond absurd &  I  don’t wanna play this game…& need to busk. I need to make a living.
God, I’m just trying to earn the cash to eat & finish my album! ‘leavemealonenypd’…..this was  harassment!
PS the gunman…he’s still out there ‘sans’  summons