Do The Right Thing

If you're thinking about the 1989 film of the same name, you're picturing my husband's precinct neighborhood. Sure, the movie was set in Brooklyn, and my husband works in SoB. But it's eerily similar: the working-class and poverty-stricken, the underlying racial tension, the allure of drugs and the money being made every which way.
Last night my husband and a trio of other officers had a chance to Do The Right Thing. They took a child away from a dangerous situation. The call came over as an assault, but after arriving on the scene, they found that there were allegations being leveled about a two year old child being sodomized. There was a "family spokesperson" blocking entry into the apartment; even though he or someone within the apartment had called the police, they decided once the police arrived that they weren't going to let them in without a search warrant. (One too many episodes of Law and Order.) Of course, the cops assured him that the overwhelming scent of cannabis wafting through the door was not the reason for the call. The scent, mixed with a heavy splash of alcohol, was just to set the scene.
I won't go through all the back-and-forth here. In the end, does it really matter? They took the child, and his sister. Child Protective Services was called. We may never know the outcome of this family's story, but the good news is this: for one night, that child may have known some peace. For today, he's safe.
All because some members of the NYPD did the right thing.