Inspirations: 'Santa' rewards cop who
wouldn't arrest homeless man
 The
homeless men and women who gathered in the cold, wearing dark
woolen hats and soiled clothes, bore little resemblance to
Santa, but they presented a Christmas gift anyway Tuesday,
and to a most unlikely recipient — a police officer.
The
story begins the night of Nov. 22, when Officer Eduardo Delacruz
refused a sergeant’s order to arrest a homeless man
found sleeping in a Manhattan parking garage.
Delacruz,
37, had told superiors in the department’s Homeless
Outreach Unit he would not arrest people who had nowhere else
to go.
“I
told you before, I’m not going to do it,” Delacruz
told superiors, according to a police report. “I won’t
arrest an undomiciled person.”
The
department promptly slapped the officer with a 30-day unpaid
suspension for refusing to comply with a lawful order, according
to deputy police commissioner Michael O’Looney.
Homeless
advocacy groups, including Housing Works and the Coalition
for the Homeless, were so touched by their unlikely ally that
they put together a fund.
Homeless
people also began contributing whatever money they could scrounge.
They gave coins they bummed from passers-by, dollar bills
from recycled cans and bottles, even money from their welfare
checks.
On
Tuesday, the homeless people gathered on the steps of City
Hall to present a check for $3,000 to the officer’s
lawyer so that Delacruz, his wife, Marissa, and the couple’s
five children would have a warmer Christmas.
“We
just wanted to thank him by contributing however we could,”
said Joe Bostic, one of 30 former and current homeless men
and women who attended the press conference. “And a
lot of us gave quarters, nickels and dimes.”
Delacruz’s
attorney, Norman Siegel, said Delacruz was back at work Tuesday
and could not attend the press conference. The officer’s
response, Siegel said, “was something like, ‘Wow.’
He was very moved by what they had done.”
Said
Siegel, “They specifically asked me to say, ‘God
bless everyone, especially the homeless.”’
The
Associated Press, December 24, 2002
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