“One of the cops said, 'Oh, you think you can do better?'”

Phyllis Johnson tells her friend Danny Perasa about how she went from Police Department clerk to beat cop.

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Recorded in New York, NY

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Facilitated by Sarah Kramer.

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Interview transcript

PJ: He was a wife abuser and he threw his wife out the window. He beat her up and he threw her out the window. I think it was the 10th or 11th floor and when uh we got there, there was this poor woman laying and the ground and I remember cradling her head in my arms and um I knew she was gonna die because she was just so broken up. And I said, “Honey,” you know “don’t worry. We got the ambulance coming to get you. Just hang in there”. And I said, “What happened? Did you fall? Did you trip what happened?” She says, “No my husband pushed me” and I said “Now I want you to know you may be dying. Are you telling the truth?” She said “Yes, I know I’m dying”. She says “Yes he used to beat me all the time”. And um we got her into the hospital and she did expire in the hospital. And um the neighbors, they told us where we could look to find him and we did. We found this guy, he was cowering over somewhere near the boardwalk area. And that was my first arrest.