Retired NYPD Det. Sonny Grosso: And, the mistake that made my Police career

October 9, 2016, marked the 45th anniversary of the release of the 5-time Academy Award winning The French Connection movie, which the AFI has listed as one of the best American films in history. It’s also been selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

So, here’s yet another colorful excerpt from the upcoming and unforgettable memoir, Harlem to Hollywood: My Real to Reel Life by Sonny Grosso, the NYPD detective who made The French Connection case:

In the early 1950s when my best friends and I had finished serving our time in the Army, we were back in Jefferson Park playing hoops. We were called the Sons of Rest by people in our neighborhood because none of us were working yet. We were playing two on two, and two others were waiting under the basket to play the winners. And, this other pal of ours comes over to the fence and says he’s going downtown to pick up some applications for the New York Fire Department, and he wanted to borrow my car. I tell him, ‘I got a flat and I got no spare.’ Another guy says, ‘Sorry, I got no gas.’ Our enterprising pal replies, ‘Okay, okay. But do you want me to pick up some applications for you guys, anyway?’ And, we all add, ‘Yeah, sure.’ But we really weren’t that interested. After all, we were the Sons of Rest, you know what I mean, and we wanted to get back to our game.

So while we continued to play ball, this guy goes all the way downtown from upper Manhattan in Harlem. The buses back then weren’t as fast and efficient as they are now. He picks up seven applications — one for himself and six for us. He comes back and passes them through the fence to us. But we saw they weren’t for the Fire Department they were for the Police Department. He’d picked up the wrong applications!

The way it eventually turned out, five of us from that day at the Park made it into the Police Academy, one of us didn’t. And, the poor guy who went all the way downtown, he didn’t make it either. You say to yourself, ‘If there’s a big guy up above, jeez, at least let this guy make it!’ But he didn’t! Hey, I never wanted to become a policeman. As a kid, we were always running from the cops. They chased you from playing crap games. They took your stickball bat away and put it down the sewer. If you were making noises, they’d come chase your ass. Cops spoiled all your fun, so no way I was looking to join up.

But once you filled out the application, some other things started to come into play. First, there were all these tests you were given. If you pass the mental test, you get to take the physical, then they do a background check. Thing is, being how I was a good student, I always wanted to pass every test. It became a competitive thing for me. On top of that, a police pension loomed big. With my father gone, we had no money and I had to think about my family. Getting a regular paycheck was everything. Plus, the NYPD had a deal where you could retire after 20 years and wind up with half your pay. Even today I still get a pension check. So it was a paying job with a pension and security for the future. The advice I got from my family was to ‘always think of the future.’ So I took all the tests and became a policeman.

Thank God, I did. I ended up having the time of my life, spending 22 years with the NYPD. It was exciting, dangerous and fun. And I’d do it all over again. Actually, when I stopped getting an orgasm every time I heard a cell door slam, I knew it was time to leave the NYPD…know what I mean. And, I owe it all to that little mistake that happened in Jefferson Park. Speaking of mistakes, if you IMDB me, it says I was born in Dusseldorf…figure that out because I’ve never even been to Europe! And one more thing ‘cause I can’t help myself: A cop who got injured on the job, shuffled slowly into an ice-cream parlor, and pulled himself painfully up onto a stool. After wincing and then catching his breath, he ordered a banana split. The waitress asked kindly, ‘Crushed nuts?’ The cop replied, ‘No, arthritis!’

Bada bing, bada boom!