Local residents laud 62nd Precinct

January 15, 2015 Meaghan McGoldrick

Photo courtesy of Sonia Valentin

Share this:

It’s a love-love relationship.

Bensonhurst resident Sonia Valentin lauded 62^nd Precinct officers at a January 8 Community Board 11 meeting – not only for helping to raise more than $2,000 worth of toys for a December Reaching out Community Services gift drive but, more importantly, for having the neighborhood’s back.

“Captain Bill Taylor found out that Reaching out Community Services was having a toy drive, and he had the men of the 62 get involved” said Valentin, a self-proclaimed woman of “many hats,” one of those hats being her role as a member of the 62^nd Precinct Community Council. “From there, members of the community got involved.”

Just before commending “her” cops for yet another job well done, Valentin encouraged any audience members wishing to don a blue ribbon in support of the NYPD to see her after the meeting.

The ribbons, she said, were her way of saying “thank you.”

“We support the local police,” said the local resident, noting that she’d actually run out of ribbon at a local event the weekend before. “When you’re in trouble, you call the police.”

The CB 11 member and local activist isn’t alone in her support. The 62^nd Precinct’s Night Out Against Crime draws a huge crowd every year to an event held outside the station house that is intended to bring together cops and community, and a few recent incidents in which 62 cops saved local residents (including children) from choking got a rousing response from the neighborhood and on this paper’s Facebook page.

Captain Nelson Chen, executive officer of the 62^nd Precinct and Taylor’s “right-hand man,” thanked Valentin and the rest of the community for the warm welcome.

“I’ve been here a little over three months and I can safely say that this is the best community I’ve ever worked in,” said Chen, “and that this is the first pro-cop community that I’ve ever worked in.”

Chen’s introduction was met by a round of applause and one “welcome home” from a board member.