Score One for the NYPD

Walking south on Eighth Avenue this evening on my way home, I came to an intersection where a car and a truck were trying to turn left off the Avenue and on to one of the streets. The crosswalk was full of pedestrians, so the car was quite appropriately waiting for the crowd to pass before proceeding. The driver of the truck took this as a personal insult; he leaned out his window and hollered a blue streak of invective at the car, the pedestrians and the city in general. I considered giving him a piece of my mind in return, something on the subject of the right of way at a crosswalk, the flashing "walk" sign in my direction, and so on, but decided it wasn't worth the effort.

But one of New York's finest thought otherwise. A mounted policeman who had been sitting on his horse a few feet away decided that the truck driver needed a bit of an attitude adjustment. So after the car made its turn, the cop and horse proceeded to block the truck's path, and the officer then gave the trucker pretty much the same lecture that I'd been contemplating, and at even greater length and volume.

Justice is a hit-or-miss proposition in this world, but when it works, it's satisfying.