While traversing Brooklyn's Heights and across to nearby Cobble Hill, there are plenty of criminal justice type edifices if you take the time to notice. Not that these are difficult to see: large courthouses, police cruisers stacked up around buildings with gated entries, doorways with signs indicating when and where a parolee may enter.
However, in the humdrum of a busy urban street these edifices blend in, and it takes a watching eye to see the goings and comings. We were staying at a relatively inexpensive hotel along Smith Street, and directly across the street was a local police station. The building was entirely non-descript, no windows, brickwork facade, the only entry that could be seen from this view was a chain-link gate which slid wide enough for waiting cruisers to enter. Once inside the gate slid shut and the black and white would then be permitted further entry when a second gate opened, leading the car deep into an underground network of locked doors and prison cells. (Black and White is a euphuism, police cruisers today are painted more gaily, these were blue and white, to make them more affable and friendly)
On this day, the hotel's windows were open for fresh air, and one could see cruisers lined up at the end of their shift, waiting entry or just waiting, one officer leaving work another beginning. On the next block was one of Brooklyn's large courthouses, it was Sunday so closed, but Monday it would receive those arrested over the weekend and being held next door in the underground police department cells.
Years ago I had tried a federal case here in Brooklyn, just down the street. It was a "white collar" case, involving computers and software technology. The result for the client was a good one, and sitting here sipping coffee, the moment brought back memories.
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