Bob Herbert writes today about some kids in Bushwick going to a wake.  A funny thing happened on the way.  Well, not really funny.

Wearing white t-shirts with a picture of the deceased teen and the letters RIP on them, a group went to pay respect.  On the way, the cops swooped down on them.  They were hauled away to the 83 Precinct, searched and held.  It’s not entirely clear why, except “unlawful assembly” was mentioned.  The kids didn’t know what that was (a separate indictment of the NYC school system).

Bob Herber wonders why.  Why do the politicians allow the cops to do this.  Why do black politicians turn away and pretend they are part of the officialdom that condones this.  Joe Hynes (he’s back!) says that it isn’t unusual for cases like these to be dismissed at arraignment.  So why bring them?  So why not investigate first?  So why not use the power of your office to go after the cops who do this to the children of Brooklyn who believe that you are there to protect them?  Why, Joe?

This is a big mountain to climb, and those of us who live in the cushy, protected and (dare I say it) white neighborhoods pretend not to see it or, more likely, just ignore it because it isn’t our fight.  It’s not our kids being hassled.  They better not do that to our kids.  If they do…Well, they’re gonna have to deal with me!  But they’re not our kids.  They are the children of the powerless, the uneducated, the poor.  And they have no champion to protect them.

I am not a cop hater.  Quite the opposite.  I am a hater of those who abuse power.  I’m not fan of ignorance either.  I believe that government has a duty to protect us, and that duty extends to everyone, including the kids in Bushwick.  There is good news here, however.  Very good news.  Not only child was shot and killed.  Small blessings.

I would like to write that this is the end of my Cop Trilogy that began with the Conway decision yesterday.  But I don’t really believe that it will be.  And I don’t believe that there is any politician, from Obama to Hillary, and certainly not Rudy who cleaned up New York at the expense of the bottom two thirds of its people, who will step up and risk the ire of campaign contributors by doing the right thing.