When we still lived in Manhattan, we still had 2 dogs, and there was a constant fight between dog owners and the rest of the world, regarding whether or not dogs could go in certain areas. One place near my home where we dog owners liked to congregate and take our dogs off the leash was a fenced in school yard on East 75th Street. We would show up after 5 and let our dogs run around for a little while. We were a conscientious group, and always picked after our dogs, and our dogs were well behaved. It was a time of day that the owners looked forward to as much as the dogs.
However, there was another group of dog owners who would meet there later at night and not pick after their dogs, and allow their dogs to do a great deal of barking late at night. The school would complain about the dog mess and the board members of the condo next door was always pressuring the cops lock up the yard and keep us out. Their
A cat and mouse game between dog owners and cops began. We would go, they would kick us out, sometimes they would ticket us. It was miserable. Some cops would just look at us and we would leave, others did the tough cop routine.
One day I was in the school yard with a couple of people and one of the tough cops came. We leashed up our dogs and headed out. I was last one out, and the cop asked asked me something, and when I didn’t give him the answer he wanted he grabbed me by the jacket arm and pulled me face to face with him. Then he started to threaten me, and I remained silent because I was just so shocked that he had grabbed me, and he was actually twisting my sleeve to tighten his hold on me. Finally I said “Let go of me.” and he refused, and I kept saying “Let go of me.” while he continued to threaten me, until I leaned closer into his face and said, “Listen, my husband is an attorney, and you and both know that you have no right to touch me. I can keep you in court for the rest of my life and it isn’t going to cost me a penny, so now let go of me.” And he did, and I held my head high, walk out turned to the opposite direction of my home, walked while he followed me, and went to a friends apartment where I broke down in tears, I was terrified. We watched out her window until he left the block, and I dashed home. The next day I put on my sweetest maternity clothes, went down to the precinct, and picked up papers to file a complaint.
I got a phone call to confirm my story, when the phone cop asked how old I was I told him I was 28 and 6 months pregnant, and just grinned from ear to ear, knowing that tough cop was going to get his.
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