As we covered yesterday, former tennis pro James Blake was assaulted by several white NYPD officers on Wednesday in Manhattan. Blake is in NYC for the US Open, to do some promotional work and to watch the games. As he was leaving his Manhattan hotel Wednesday afternoon, a white undercover cop jumped him. Blake was thrown to the ground and scuffed up – go here to read his account of the incident.
Eventually, he was released because (surprise surpise), the cops had tackled the wrong guy. They were looking for a totally different black guy… who also happened to be innocent of the credit card fraud scheme that the NYPD was investigating. TMZ got a photo of the other guy, and yes, he does look sort of like James Blake. But a “passing resemblance” to a guy being investigated for a non-violent financial fraud crime is still no reason for ANYONE to be violently taken down on the street by no fewer than six police officers.
For what it’s worth, it seems like there was video of the incident and the video seems to prove Blake’s side of the story. New York City mayor Bill DeBlasio and NYPD police commissioner Bill Bratton have now offered public apologies to Blake, and they claim that they’ve been trying to reach him on his cell phone to apologize personally. The NYT did a detailed story about everything that’s gone down since Wednesday’s assault – some highlights:
Mayor Bill de Blasio: “I want to talk to him because I want to apologize to him on behalf of the City of New York. This shouldn’t have happened and he shouldn’t have been treated that way.”
Commissioner Bratton: He said he tried to contact Blake “to extend my apologies for the incident which he found himself involved in yesterday.”
What happened to the cop who took down Blake? “The undercover detective who detained Mr. Blake has been stripped of his gun and badge and placed on desk duty, a tacit acknowledgment that video of the arrest raised serious questions about his actions. Mr. Bratton, speaking at a news conference on Thursday, said he had concerns about “the inappropriateness of the amount of force that was used during the arrest.” An initial review of video evidence of the arrest, he said, led him to believe that it may have been excessive.”
Oh, and the cops didn’t even report the incident: “Mr. Bratton said the team of six undercover detectives involved in detaining Mr. Blake — all of whom were white — failed to report the incident, a breach of department practices.”
A witness, a newspaper vendor, says: “They were real aggressive, like he robbed a bank. They were shoving him around.” The witness said he saw Mr. Blake, his hands cuffed behind his back, being handled aggressively by a half-dozen undercover officers. The officers shoved Mr. Blake face first into a large, mirrored building support beam near the Grand Hyatt, Mr. Sanders recalled. With his head wrenched to the side, Mr. Blake tried to talk. “He told them, ‘I have my U.S. Open badge in my pocket.’”
Bratton also said at the press conference that “I don’t believe at all that race was a factor” in the mistaken detainment of Blake. In Blake’s initial interview with the NYDN, he said that he believed race was a factor, but he simply stated it as his opinion, his reading of the situation. While I think a mistaken-identity arrest/detainment could happen to anyone of any race, I think the fact that the takedown was so violent shows that there was a racial factor at play.
Blake also spoke to Good Morning America on Thursday. He says that his wife – a publicist – told him he should go public about the incident. He is so even-tempered here. I would be full of righteous rage.
ABC Breaking News | Latest News Videos
Photos courtesy of Pacific Coast News, WENN.
A good start, but not enough
I pity the fool white cop who jumps Serena Williams.
She would take him to the ground and teach him a lesson.
we’re sorry you’re a famous black man and brought light to our behavior. Now back to knocking out the poors to the pavement, no one yells at us then!
That seems about right, ugh.
Yup, exactly.
My favorite part was “the incident in which he found himself involved….” As if being in that situation was somehow his own doing.
Wasn’t that a crappy thing to say? He didn’t “find himself involved” they involved him!
The wording of that is pure political & bureaucratic deflection double-speak, and it infuriates me, too.
Yeah where is the apology for my cousin,Chris,? He is being taken down dozens of time during stop and frisk stops.
His wife is a publicist!? Oh, this is going to be so friggin’ karmic. I wish everyone in this situation had a publicist on his or her personal staff.
RIGHT? His being famous and his wife being a publicist… beautiful!
Honestly, this is so disgusting. And yet KEEPS happening. People will say police offers work in tough conditions. Hmm, what’s the excuse here? That officer should be fired not just demoted to desk duty for a week. I hope he sues the NYPD. They need to get their act together. Yes, police offers are gunned down BUT that is not justification for how this black man, and many others, are treated during arrests. And in the lobby of a hotel – give me a break!
He is such a class act I could see him suing, winning, and then using the winnings toward the creaction of a fund to compensate victims of police brutality. And, yeah, it was about race because that’s how we do in the 212!
Suing doesn’t do anything either NYC has so many lawsuits against it that its routine and they basically automatically pay out and make him sign an NDA . No one gets punished and its business as usual. The best thing is what he’s doing speaking to the public.
In terms of daily risk of dying due to an on-the-job incident, police officer doesn’t even crack the top ten list of most dangerous occupations. You are more likely to die from an on-the-job homicide as a professional taxi driver. (Google “occupation with highest fatality rate bloomberg” to see the list.) This fantasy that police unions promote that all police officers are constantly putting their lives in war zone-level mortal danger every day due to stranger violence is unsupported by the evidence, and is a tired misrepresentation trotted out every time they need to “justify” violent police misconduct. It’s time for that myth to die.
This! My brother is a police officer and he said, yes it is in the back of your mind, but in reality he does not go to work fearing his life is in danger. The exception to this he said is when he gets a call for a domestic disturbance, those are a little unsettling, because you never know what you are walking into. A little spat or all out war. But even then he said you go in calm and try to diffuse the situation, not go in guns blazing, best way to get someone killed, is to go in all hot.
On one hand I feel police are like teachers, the majority are really good and do their job and really care and work to do the right thing. It just the bad ones are so bad. I read yesterday this makes the 5th excessive force complaint against this detective. 1 is usually unheard of but 5. He needs to be gone.
The truth is, it is the police officers who are constantly putting other people’s lives in danger. They are too quick to pull a gun and are not accountable.
So true..
I will add that what’s even more disturbing is that our military has more stringent rules of engagement that our local law enforcement..
Let me put that into context, (I served 8 years in the Marine Corps), as servicemembers it is drilled into us the rules of engagement. Even in hot spots with enemy combatants! Let’s think about that! How is it that it is more acceptable for the police to draw their weapons at other US citizens than it is for servicemembers in war zones? And if a servicemember violates that he is subject to a military tribunal not just desk duty.
If you’ve ever seen the movie Rules of Engagement picture that scenario happening in … Baltimore.
The Other Katherine: Exactly! In large part b/c killing an officer will legally ALWAYS result in either capital punishment or a life sentence, cops are very rarely killed: police are simply NOT as endangered on their jobs as many people seem to believe. The whole excuse/refrain of “being afraid for their lives” and thus shooting suspects even in quite equivocal situations–or even completely non threatening ones– therefore often holds no water whatsoever. Police become “afraid for their lives” b/c someone unarmed on a bike looks at them, somehow, the wrong way, or b/c a naked, inebriated, unarmed man seems “dangerously unpredictable” and thus they are perfectly within their rights, even their job requirements, to shoot to kill? No: that is wrong. Police brutality, and even outright murder, for the most part goes completely unpunished, too: Officers who have “misbehaved” get desk work or “suspension” (e.g. paid vacation.) The routine targeting of black male citizens and the mentally ill is outrageous, and absurd and cruel, and has gone on unheeded for DECADES, as if these victims somehow deserve their fates, as though their voices don’t especially matter. Only recently, with newer technology, have these brutalities been regularly captured on video, and, even so, police, for the most part in this country–though doubted more than they once were– are still predominantly regarded as “heroic” and brave, as “putting their lives on the line daily” for the sake of the general public. This outright mythology–which persists mostly among sheltered, white Americans–does not in any way correlate with the reality of the overall extremely low mortality of policing or with the violent, racist behavior of too many (though clearly, far from all) police. A police badge should NOT be regarded by them as a license to actually execute suspects (what happened to “innocent until proven guilty”?) most often under the ridiculously false excuse of “fearing for their lives.”
Let me clarify this, if I may. I just watched a video of the entire incident. Blake – who looks white to me BTW, was standing outside the hotel near the luggage racks looking at his hand held device. A man in plain clothes, white T shirt and jeans, rushes up to Blake and grabs him around the waist and shoves him to the ground face down. The guy, who appears to be a bit bigger than Blake, and very fit, sits on Blake’s upper legs while restraining his hands behind his back, with whatever he uses, could be handcuffs, but more likely plastic restraints, because he reaches twice into his jeans pockets and after he apparently secures Bake. He then assists Blake into a sitting position, and then helps him to his feet, then walks him to what appears to be a squad car. That is all that occurred. It was not brutal in any way. Unfortunately, they nabbed the wrong person, and apologies are in order, but it was not “police brutality”.
An unbadged, uniformed officer, failing to identify himself, and using force to throw to the ground a suspect — who is suspected of a non-violent crime and whom the police have no particular reason to believe armed or dangerous — who has not yet attempted to resist arrest, IS police brutality. Period. If you don’t think that being thrown to the pavement by a large muscular man, who has not even identified himself as law enforcement nor given you a chance to surrender peacefully, and who then yanks your arms behind your back and restrains them while pinning you to the ground so that you can’t move, isn’t brutal, than I am 100% certain that this has never happened to you.
Are you sure you watched the right video? that is not what I saw at all. Blake doesn’t look “white”, whatever you mean by that, and the man ran at him (not in uniform) and violently threw him to the ground. It’s a miracle he didn’t fight back because I would have assumed I was being lethally attacked by a dangerous criminal and tried to defend myself (and probably have gotten shot in the process). How exactly do you define police brutality.
Say what? That looked like excessive force to me. Tackling someone for a credit card fraud case? If he was a killer on the loose, ok, I can get tackling him. But for credit card fraud? Wtf? Are you ok with getting tackled if you get a speeding ticket?
Sassy: Are you (for whatever weird reason) joking?!? That sure as hell looked like excessive force to me—and frightening, inexplicable force, as well, since for NO APPARENT REASON WHATSOEVER Blake was *attacked* by a strange man in civilian clothing, out of the blue. If you consider that to be normal, routine, *acceptable* police behavior, then there is something alarmingly skewed about your view.
He’s being treated as the exception. What’s being ignored is that this level of violence is more the rule. Why? That’s what should be the topic of discussion from the commissioner.
I agree. Why wouldn’t they calmly state he was under arrest and then IF and ONLY IF he resisted…then by all means get your tackle on. He wasn’t even given a chance to comply! That’s insane! They could have badly injured him. He is a professional athlete so he was better able to take an attack like this than an ordinary person would. I can’t imagine how sore I would be if this had happened to me. They were kneeling on his left leg I believe they said in the first article…I’d be limping for weeks! It makes no sense at all! He was just standing there. This makes me so mad.
The NYPD is just an embarrassment, he however, is adorable and you can tell how humiliated he was so good for him for talking about it and trying to make this inexcuasable situation better.
How about instead of wasting everyone’s time with transparent, bullsh!t, a$$-covering apolgies (“sorry we got caught treating you the way we treat all minorities”), we talk about why our police officers are taking on the mentality of “jump the suspect first, ask questions later”? That is unacceptable behavior from any police officer toward any suspect, especially plain-clothes officers who haven’t even identified themselves. He essentially got jumped by a gang of a$$hats for no reason. If he had been jumped by an actual gang of men of color and the cops had shown up, we’d probably be tragically hearing that all suspects and Mr. Blake are now deceased. Thank God that didn’t happen, but it’s infuriating that since these officers have magical badges that they weren’t even wearing, they’re supposed to be allowed to act like criminals themselves with no consequence. Our police system is nothing but a government-sanctioned gang. But I say no more. The title of police officer does not elevate you to royalty. Those who enforce the law do not deserve the benefit of the doubt around every corner, they should be held to a higher standard at all times. Unacceptable.
Agreed 100%.
I hope the surveillance video is released to the press so that everyone can witness what happened.
Well, here is the first of the videos…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nypd-james-blake-video_55f3330de4b063ecbfa45626
Oh nooo, I’m SURE race wasn’t a factor. This happens to me all. The. Time.
Please. They only apologized because he has recourse. Sickening.
I’m sympathetic to most policemen and the difficult jobs they have. But there is a segment of our police force who believes it’s ok to use excessive force on our black citizens, and they need to be FIRED. Now. Clean up this house and stop denying that it’s happening, stop saying “wul, golly, more white people are killed by police every year than black people” because, no sh$t, 74% of Americans are white, or “wul, a lot of black people kill other black people,” because wtf does that have to do with anything. Just stop it. And get rid of these bad cops. Now.
Preach, GoodNames, preach. Thank you.
This. So much this.
Exactly.
This is how they take down everyone suspected of credit card fraud, right? Not just the black ones.
maybe just those involved in the fraud of Black Cards. you know they can get really outta control at Bendels if you don’t take ’em down.
100% agree
That interview made me sad.
Just some points on police internal affairs investigations and discipline. and why the cop was assigned to desk duty and not, as some of you want, immediately fired. The NYPD is unionized. Internal affairs has to conduct an investigation into the actions of all of them and make findings on what rules were violated. The officers get to have a hearing at which the internal affairs findings are presented and the union presents the officers’s position. The hearing officer then makes a report to the commissioner and the NYPD’s human resource division and legal departments must make recommendations on what discipline is allowable under the contract for those violations, what prior discipline history the officers have each had, what the history of discipline for those offenses have been to others, and how likely an arbitrator is to uphold the discipline decision on appeal. This generally takes more than a few days. The Commissioner can follow the recommendations given to him or ignore them completely, and issue whatever discipline he decides. The union gets to grieve it and take it either to civil service or an arbitrator.
By the way, this officer was accused of using excessive force on a mother a few years ago too.
I get that, and I didn’t mean that this particular police officer should be dealt with without an investigation, but in the end, they aren’t fired. They are “disciplined” or found not guilty of any wrongdoing or you never hear about it again. Nothing ever happens to them unless there is a huge public outcry. Nothing will happen to this one except desk duty.
While the process you described may be accurate anyone with any knowledge of the NYPD knows that these cops hardly ever face any real punishment beyond losing vacation days or desk duty for an ascribed time and they are royally p’od when they lose their vacation days. Then they are back on the streets even if there are lawsuits paid out they are almost never fired.
Seeing this was his 5th complaint of excessive force I would say its safe to give him the boot.
I listen to Brian Lehrer on WNYC and he’s done pretty extensive shows on the NYPD since the Eric Garner case. The thing is that unless it’s a really public case the officers with the complaints face almost no consequences even if a lawsuit is paid out they are just put back on duty.
> with the complaints face almost no consequences even if a lawsuit is paid out they are just put back on duty.
Yep, and it is taxpayer money that goes into payouts. While the cops keep their salaries and their pensions.
Well, someone noted that this isn’t the officer’s first complaint. He was obviously back on the street in spite of past actions. His previous victims were probably POC, too. And I’m not getting how “this isn’t about race”. The photo they had of the alleged fraud suspect was that of a black man. So they time to think about the suspect, his race, and their plan for apprehending him. I just don’t believe that if the suspect’s photo was that of a white man, that the brutality in apprehending the suspect would have occurred. I believe it would have been simply taking someone in for questioning, and that the effing cop would have even deigned to introduce himself, too.
Plus, it really singes that none of the cops even reported it? Are they stupid? They violently take down a sports celebrity and they think it’s just all going to be good? Never mind their actions are deplorable, and I think they should all receive some kind of punishment or education, but they didn’t think a celebrity would come forward? If only to protect their own sorry butts I would think they’d try to spin their story before the higher-ups heard about it first. Smh. Cops are some kind of something.
I still don’t understand how is it a union or disciplinary matter and not a matter of law?
If somebody commits a crime/ assault like those police officers, you don’t go to their manager to figure out what to do with them.
I understand the mechanics, I just think the whole set up is wrong. Police officers should be held to the same standard as everybody else.
Teachers unions work in a similar way, I think.
“he tried to talk…My US Open Badge is in my pocket”…can you freaking imagine??! This is awful. I hope he’s okay-six on one is outrageous. And I hope he sues the hell out them. So sickening.
Even if he wins, they’ll fire one cop, but the whole cover up and abuse system will remain in place.
This issue can be resolved only through persistent media coverage.
Ha, where are all the posters who claimed it couldn’t be racially motivated because he looks white? The suspect was black, and at least in the TMZ picture, looks darker than Blake. There’s no way the cops thought he was white. They knew he was black. There’s also no way that the cops would have treated a well dressed, white man stepping out of the Grand Hyatt in this manner.
Right?
Tell it. I was honestly really sad to see what could have been a valuable discussion about racially-motivated police violence and excessive force within a broken police system turned into a debate over whether he “looks black” or not. Talk about missing the point and staying asleep. However, there were still some wonderful discussions and I don’t mean to discount that. It’s just that the trivial “but he looks white!” stuff really disappointed me.
I skipped the post yesterday – kids out of the house with their Dad equals nap time for five months pregnant Mom – but when I read the news my first thought was, “oh, no. They’re going to try and claim they didn’t know he was black.” Life has made me so cynical that my hormones made me cry.
I hope DeBlasio doesn’t let this go because it’s sticky politically. He has a black wife and bi-racial children. What if it were his son?
I skipped as well.
Isn’t DiBlasio already at odds with the major police unions about the LAST TIME (caps because I can’t believe this is a repeat discussion) the police were accused of excessive, racially motivated violence? Though it’ll be interesting to see how he handles it considering that it’s the 9/11 anniversary.
Agreed, totally depressing
glad you pointed this out. It doesn’t matter whether police knew one person in one instance was black or not. That observation does not negate the FACT, the EMPIRICAL FACT by a VARIETY of EMPIRICAL MEASURES, that black people are repeatedly, endemically and disproportionately profiled by the police, subjected to police brutality, sentenced unfairly (a looooong history there) and incarcerated unjustly.
I get so angry when I think of these evangelical Christians with amplified voices drowning out what *should* be a new phase of a nation-wide civil rights movement with their stupid paranoia and misinformation. Notice how fast feminism really took off in public conversation? It picked up steam in 2014, and it’s become the buzzword for 2015. It’ll be a top issue in the 2016 campaign and every other actress is commenting on it. But this–the GROSS and REPEATED miscarriage of justice carried out against defenseless and innocent Americans–even after ALL the events of the year, hasn’t taken off with quite the same steam.
It makes me so angry. This is a major reason why I will not raise my child in the US. I can’t deal with the racist garbage and I’ll never willfully expose him to either that or the violence. If the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice, that curve is too effing shallow.
LOL yes, because racism only exists in the US. You’re in for a surprise.
@Jay, I don’t think you read very carefully. And apparently I understand a lot better than you just how race in America compares to elsewhere. But it’s cute how you think you’ve got it figured out.
Thank you. Although I must admit that the suspect looked more like Blake than I anticipated; I thought it would turn out to be a stocky middle-aged man with dark skin and a ‘tache.
Sorry but Cops have been caught in so many lies for all I know that wasn’t the pic of the original suspect (turns out that guy was innocent as well)
They could have used facial recognition/google image search to come up with a pic of some random person that kinna looks like Blake
Plus if it was just an honest mistake why didnt the arresting officers file a report ??
@blogdiz
good point about they could have just thrown any pic they wanted out there. How would we know?
The not reporting that they “accidentally” roughed up someone other than the suspect is very telling. There were half a dozen that did not report this, that would make it seem like it is a conspiracy to not to follow procedures.
I don’t think you’ve thought your conspiracy theory all the way through …
If they’ve used a random photo, some guy is going to wake up to 50+ texts from concerned friends/family and kick up a fuss.
It would have to be a paid model. If so, the cops would’ve had to pay a truckload of hush-money because the media would pay BIG for a story like that.
Oh Embertine why has that man been cleared as well?? * eyerolls*
@Lucrezia
But in essence it is a random pic as the guy in the pic had nothing to do with the crime either (and I’m sure hes getting all kind of attention from people who actually know him)
There really isn’t anything preventing cops in a certain jurisdiction using anybody social media pics and saying they have credible reason to believe…or they match the description of a suspect etc. How are you gonna get behind the blue wall of silence to prove/disprove these credible sources /part of an ongoing investigation blah blah ?
The police report submitted when Tamar Rice was killed had in at least 5 major inconsistencies(lies) because the cops didnt realize that a cam way over across the street had captured the whole incident
So forgive me for being cynical
#copslietocoverthierassallthetime
@blogdiz: I agree cops lie all the time. But lies get uncovered when people start looking at things closely. (Your example about Rice kind of proves that point). Since Blake’s famous, there’ll obviously be a lot of scrutiny. They’ll have to explain why they thought photo-guy was involved in the first place. Photo-guy can easily break the wall of silence by reaching out to the media. It just makes no sense to use a photo of god-knows-who, when you don’t know what kind of alibi they might have. If your “suspect” turns out to be a law-abiding kindy teacher who lives across the country, then how do you explain why he was your suspect?
The FBI or something might have the resources to pick a suitable “random” photo. (Looks like Blake, lives in the area, some kind of reason to suspect them, like a similar name to the baddies or a criminal history of fraud) But regular cops? Nope.
Actually, that’s all kind of irrelevant. More details are out now. The cops are saying the witness provided the photo in the first place. Do you think witness guy is going along with a lie?
Yeah I do think he looks like a lighter-skin version of the other suspect. I also was one of the people that read the original CB post and had to scroll back up when they said he was black because I honestly did think he was white based on the photos.
However, I fully agree this WAS definitely racially motivated attack. I feel they would have thought twice about roughing up a white man in a suit. So even though I couldn’t tell he was black from the photos I agree they thought he was. I also think even if he WAS guilty this would STILL Have been wrong. Why on earth would you tackle without even giving the person a chance to comply? Terrifying. I can’t imagine if this happened to me, a non-athlete. I would be crying.
*sips tea*
Ha. I saw the post yesterday and knew it would be a sh*t show. I skipped it. Every time there is a post that has to do with racism or cultural appropriation, it turns into a hot mess of ignorance and willful dismissal of other people’s feelings.
Someone actually said THIS on the other post about this incident:
“Don’t limit you base to just one race. There is nothing worse than telling white people “you can’t understand because you are not black”. Sure, but you lose them right there and you can’t solve anything in the US without white people support.”
Completely tone deaf and dismissive.
@jayey, that was me actually.
I think people took an issue with me being so cynical? I was only telling the truth.
This is how politics works.
@EN-The truth is that no matter how much you insist, white people cannot understand what it’s like to be black. We just cannot. The only way that I can sort of understand racism in even a marginally-visceral way is to compare it to sexism, and even then it’s not the same at all. I only understand it in the sense that I know there are things that I cannot do because I’m a woman.
I’m not offended by the very real fact that “I don’t get it” and black people don’t need to “gain” my support by being nice or acting in a certain way or not hurting my white feelings. I’m also not arrogant enough to think that black folks need me to save them.
Straight-up keeping it simple: white people should support PoC in the fight because we’re all f*cking humans and equality benefits each and every one of us.
> @EN-The truth is that no matter how much you insist, white people cannot understand what it’s like to be black.
@Kitten , and I disagree with that, and I guess we’ll just have to leave it at that.
You’re so cool, Kitten. I’m being serious.
It is both a racial case and a police brutality case. Neither one should be dismissed in favor of another, both should be addressed.
Both are intolerable and lead to innocent being prosecuted.
“Typically, derailing will instead center the needs of the relatively privileged group and ask the activist to reframe the conversations or actions around members of that group”
I know that you don’t see it but that’s what you were doing on yesterday’s thread and what you continue to do today, EN–you’re derailing.
> I know that you don’t see it but that’s what you were doing on yesterday’s thread and what you continue to do today, EN–you’re derailing.
No, I am not. People want to turn it into racism issue only, and it is not a racism issue only. Plenty of people have been mistreated by police and I personally abhor any abuse of power. So, if I want to see this issue as racism AND abuse of power (because this is something I feel strongly about), this is not derailing and not justifying racism.
Hon, it IS a race issue. Please get an education. I suspect you haven’t spent enough time in areas of the US where race has a direct impact on your quality of life. You can’t sit there and turn a blind eye when you’ve got a randomly assembled group of white and black kids from all over the country and every time you ask a question related to life experience or health metrics, ONLY one race responds. That’s life. Sorry you haven’t experienced that. Maybe get out more.
It’s not about what happens to who. It’s about DISPROPORTIONALITY: ONE race is targeted MORE. Nobody is saying other races don’t experience these things at all. If brutality is the problem, it’s still about race because ONE race is brutalized MORE. Poverty knows no race…but you’re a idiot if you think poverty is not connected to racism.
EN, I think you’re being deliberately obtuse. If you prefer not to attempt to empathize and realize, then just start your own hashtag. This is #blacklivesmatter.
1. Ask why they rapped “Fuck The Police” when this is the reality for so many. When many won’t look as ‘clean cut’ as this man and have access to a publicist and lawyer? Yeah, a dislike is there because we all know no matter how smart, well mannered, well dressed or etc. you’re one cop away from being slammed in the ground and screamed at like an animal.
2. The day the NYPD tackles random white men in suits for crime will be the end of the world. Bratton can GTFO with that bull.
3. I like how they suddenly said “I tried to contact him” AFTER accusing him of lying and saying the first story isn’t true. Yeah, Blake doesn’t want your lame phone calls.
4. After what happened with Eric Garner this damn department STILL hasn’t learned you can’t get physical with people for non-violent crimes! How many more people are they going to injure or kill?!
1. Yes.
2. Yes.
3. Yes.
4. YES.
TESTIFY Eternal!!!
This damn department will never learn. The NYPD is one of the biggest bully organizations in the world. Sadly, they own this city.
Yes.
+10000
NYPD is so damn tone deaf, it is amazing…ly sad. The disaterous twitter promo, the Swedish police officers who embarrassed them with breaking up the subway fight. You would think something will change. With the anniversary today I bet they are praying no one will ever discuss this again.
The NYPD officer Union is run by tone – deaf idiots. Remember when they blasted DiBlasio over Eric Garner?
You know Bridget, did not even think about the union. You are correct.
Agree 100%. They are the real power-thugs behind the scenes, and corrupt as the day is long.
Jesus, I’d forgotten how gorgeous he is…it broke my heart when he got watery eyes talking about his his wife being in that situation.
The suspect is darker. If you’re squinting he looks like James Blake.
Interestingly that suspect wasn’t guilty of the crime either
Heres the thing even if Blake was the credit card scammer this is a non violent white collar crime , he was simple standing there unarmed, not running, not posing a threat to others , there were SIX cops involved, he could have easily been surrounded and handcuffed without this brutal take down
There are plenty of white Wall street execs and Bernie Madoff types that have wreaked more havoc on American lives than some low level credit card scammers and none of them are arrested in this brutal manner
Do you mean they didn’t tackle Bernie to the grown when they arrested him? What?
Except that the picture of the “suspect” that looks like James Blake was also innocent.
Let me break it down more. The under cover officers were totally in the wrong. They then pull out a picture of someone that looks similar to James to make it seem like there was some justification for the outrageous take down. Shocker that the police did not even report their misconduct per regulations.
Even if you have to squint to see a resemblance there is absolutely no justification for the brutal manner in which the arrest occurred.
I agree, I do think they look similar but how does that excuse the brutal attack? They gave him no chance to comply which is insane. I mean they don’t know if he has a medical condition! An attack like that, being thrown on the ground, could seriously injure or even kill people. He was a professional athlete so he would obviously come out less injured than a regular person would. I find this so terrifying. I can’t imagine being hurt in this way for no reason and only given a chance to speak AFTER I had been assaulted.
Horrible what happened to him and good for him for speaking out about police brutality and even if he doesn’t think it, the racism of some cops. unfortunately it may take a well dressed, articulate, educated and good looking famous athlete who passes almost for white to show how screwed up some cops are. I shudder to think how anyone else of color or lesser means would be treated — all for a non violent crime!
+100000
This might penetrate even the FOX noise trying to pretend that Black Lives Matter movement is “racist” and unnecessary. His racial ambiguity and tennis celebrity to those resistant to having sympathy towards Black men will wake some of them up to reality. I was waiting to get new tires at a dealership that always has a local fox channel on and this story was covered numerous times at each top of the hour news.
> I want to talk to him because I want to apologize to him on behalf of the City of New York. This shouldn’t have happened and he shouldn’t have been treated that way.
Yet it happens every day to many people, But they only apologize when it is somebody famous and they got caught. Cowards, liars, bullies and hypocrites, the whole lot of them.
They should be apologizing to all of America, and then resigning promptly.
Speaking of excessive force, I wasn’t too shocked to learn the following:
“In families of police officers, domestic violence is two-to-four times more likely than in the general population — from stalking and harassment to sexual assault and even homicide. As the National Center for Women and Policing notes, two studies have found that at least 40% of police officer families experience domestic violence, in contrast to 10% of families in the general population. ”
– http://mic.com/articles/106886/one-group-has-a-higher-domestic-violence-rate-than-everyone-else-and-it-s-not-the-nfl
Sad but horribly true, probably doesn’t help matters that the women are terrified to seek appropriate police intervention because of that ‘thin blue line’ bull that makes police put the focus on protecting and shielding the guilty rather than doing the right thing. Officers who do report their co-workers bad deeds often find themselves threatened with no one in the top tier to put a stop to it.
The whole thing is damn shamefull.
YUP. Because cops protect their own.
> Because cops protect their own.
Just like mafia.
“40% of police officer families experience domestic violence, in contrast to 10% of families in the general population. ”
WELL SCOOP MY JAW OFF THE FLOOR THAT IS HORRIFYING!!!!!!!!!! 40%?!?!?!?!?!? WHAT THE HELL! How terrifying! Being abused by the very person who is supposed to protect you from abuse. Someone given a taser, mace, and a gun. I cannot imagine the terror those women face. I am so disturbed by that statistic.
It *is* horrifying, but I don’t understand why it is a surprise. (Not singling you out personally, pinetree, I think lots of people are surprised by this statistic.) All you have to do is look at the entitled, bullying, contemptuous behavior a large percentage of law enforcement display towards any member of the general public that they don’t believe has sufficient social status to call them out — what does everyone imagine these LEOs behave like behind closed doors? The idea that the “bad eggs” on the police force are only a vanishingly tiny minority is not supported by the evidence, especially by the full-scale cover-ups that most officers are willing to take part in, at least tacitly, when a fellow officer is accused of misconduct. The officers who are willing to report on and testify against miscreants in their ranks usually find themselves frozen out, if not physically threatened — they are treated as whistleblowing “rats” and ostracized. It’s basically omerta, and nothing is a better breeding ground for domestic violence than a code of silence about criminal activity within the ranks.
The thing that makes this even worse, is the person in the picture is not the suspect. Now this man’s picture is being flashed all over the world as the “non-suspect” but a large majority of the Not-really-reading-or-paying- attention public will only see “suspect” and assume this man is guilty of something he is not.
Yeah, I saw the guy’ s pic on a blog, identified as the real suspect.In a matter of time someone will find out his name and people will associate him with identity fraud.
Agreed.
But one tiny positive: he could definitely make money by selling his story if he wants to. I can’t be the only one wondering what happened during Mr Looks-like-Blake’s arrest. Did the police tone down the violence since they’d just made fools of themselves? Or did they do it again?
Down-side of the tiny positive: If he’s more interested in anonymity than money, he’s screwed. People are interested in him now. Therefore the media will hunt him down and trawl through his facebook photos and tweets to see if there’s anything they can use.
Ooops, my mistake. I got confused by the fact someone else was arrested at the scene. I thought that was the guy in the photo. Arrested, investigated and found innocent.
The person they arrested at the scene was actually someone else altogether (a white British guy) and guilty (apparently). Another bad-guy (who I’m assuming is black, but may or may not look like Blake and innocent-photo-guy) was arrested later. Photo-guy wasn’t at the scene at all.
I guess innocent-photo-guy’s story is still interesting: “I woke up to find my photo plastered across the internet”. But I’d also still like to know how the 2nd arrest went down. And the 1st arrest. Were they different to Blakes? Did the 2 black guys get treated worse than the white guy? Or did they tone it down because they’d already screwed up once.
Was the white guy they arrested assaulted, too?
Tough experience, but I’m glad it happened to such a well spoken, articulate and compassionate man, who was willing to share his story.
This is a very valuable testimony and shows the US police force in its true light.
Unfortunately police racism is so ingrained in its culture, it will take generation to go away.
I am shocked by the lack of reaction from influential politicians. To me, this is the real issue.
If the legislation doesn’t change, abusive police officers will forever get away with, litteraly, murder, with a slap in the wrist, or a ‘demotion to desk duty’.
So what about the other black people who this officer has assaulted, is anyone going to apologise to them? Or, he was totally justified in attacking that woman in her home because the lollipop she was holding looked suspicious? That’s the guy they’re protecting.
Please. Wonder if they also apologized to the second guy.
Well, here’s another take… from the political-cultural-activist side of things…
NYC Fashion Week just saw this happen (courtesy of Kerby Jean-Raymond, the founder and head designer of Pyer Moss):
“Before a stitch of clothing went down the runway, the audience was presented with a short film about the horrific cases of police brutality on black men and women that have filled headlines — and several that flew under the radar.
The fifteen-minute video (see clip below) was a barrage to the senses. Several gasps were heard as we watched footage from no less than 16 cases of police brutality, including Eric Garner’s fatal chokehold and Marlan Brown being run over by a police car, resulting in his death. ”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/pyer-moss-powerful-nyfw-show-takes-on-police-brutality_55f2a4a0e4b042295e35d68e
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqyX5UpzUf0
I’m not sure how I feel about that. It’s something I’d respect at an art show, but at Fashion Week … it kind of feels like cashing in on the victims. (The blood-spattered shoes are particularly offensive if he’s making money out of them. I’m usually incredibly passive, but if I met someone wearing those because they thought they were “cool”, there’d suddenly be more blood-spatters than the designer intended.)
I did a little research and see that he donated $32 from every $70 “They Have Names” shirt. Which tips things in his favour, but I’m still not sure. Does anyone know if he’s donating money from this collection and/or if the $32 was all the profit or if he was skimming something off the top?
There’s a whole grid of fine crossed lines re ethics and expression and commerce and intention lurking in the mess of public platforms during this discussion, isn’t there?
I’m interested to see what comes of this… especially as seen & felt on the street vs. on the runway. Please do post if you learn more about this particular designer’s follow-through, or the blowback from this show?
This case involved use of unnecessary force AND racial bias. The man James Blake was mistaken for is a much darker black man.
Most of the time I support the police because they have an extremely difficult job, but they clearly need an overhaul and a change in culture. This requires a clean-up from the top down.
Happening to his (blonde) wife? Yeah, okay.
Her point was if happened to his loved one he would be outraged.It doesn’t matter if it was his white wife or his white mother or his black father.
I understand his point and am sensitive to it, no one wants this to happen to people they love, but there isn’t a culture of policing that’s antagonistic towards people who look like his wife. Goodnames (who is blonde, too) brought herself up earlier as an example of someone who wouldn’t have those worries and she’s right. Heaven forbid that something should happen to her, what I’m saying is that statistics don’t suggest that it will.
I’m like …Dude how out of touch do you have be ???
I think he’s using his white wife as an example so white people will picture themselves in that situation. or maybe he really does think his wife might be in that situation one day. And he does look white in that header picture, not saying that that means this is not a racial incident. Just saying he looked white Italian to me. In that picture. It does not mean I’m a racist, lol. But he does look white in that picture. My husband looks Hispanic in the winter and looks very dark skinned african american n the summertime. Its possible Blake is lighter skinned naturally and looked darker in other pictures when he played tennis in the sun.
Yeah, the cop’s 4 other civil suits have just been outed
He’s done. You got the wrong one, buddy
Remember if he did this to one, it ain’t his first offense
You should see an attorney or look up law forums for prior complaints if you’ve been violated or harassed
Human nature. If they did it to you, they has done it to others. Be that straw, even years Later and save another from PTSD .
Let’s go, already! !
They showed video of the takedown on Evening News.He could easily walked up to James and said may I see your ID.But that is too much like right.
What shocked me in the video is the reaction of the people walking by.
They notice a guy on top of another guy, freeze, look around, realize that everyone is acting like nothing is happening, and they proceed also acting like nothing is happening.
Nobody questions it, very Kafkaesque and surreal. They are all afraid.
Yeah, it’s the bystander effect. I knew about it, so I’m not technically shocked, but it’s still strange to watch it play out so obviously. One by one you can see them thinking “Whoa, what’s going on? Isn’t someone going to do something? Wait … no-one else is panicking. Well okay, everything must be fine. I’ll just continue on.”
But are you implying it happened because people were afraid of the cops (or just generally afraid of getting in the middle of a struggle between strangers)? It’s not just fear of physical danger that holds people back. The research on the bystander effect has looked at lots of different emergency situations: someone getting assaulted (where you might be in danger if you intervene), smoke drifting into a room (where you’re in danger if you don’t react) and someone having a medical episode (where there is no danger to you at all). Regardless of the type of emergency, it’s all the same: more people around, the less personal responsibility the bystander feels.
I was shocked by that too, the guy wasn’t in uniform! It kinda made me think, if that happened to me, would people just walk on by?and one lady pointed at him and said something! Poor Blake, I would have sued their ass off. How humiliating, especially when you haven’t done anything!
On yahoo, there’s video of Blake being thrown on the ground by the officer.
All I think is that on top of everything else these cops care so little about the public that they refuse to identify themselves or state their business, comporting themselves like thugs, so literally any band of violent plainclothes yahoos can impersonate them and randomly assault someone claiming to be the police.
And the most they care about is getting caught out – and then mostly likely for political blowback/ramifications… (No, bodycams are not a solution, there the pretense of one.)
They’re clearly out of public control no matter what hat they want to put on it which is why it’s so disgusting. Even the wording they use oozes with the need to project their behaviour onto the people they’ve victimised. Keep pretending you care about the safety of the public. Nevermind that a candidate for fraud doesn’t necessitate that kind of excessive aggression either.
Their apologies have as much substance as the sincerity behind them. They’re apologizing because in their opinion that’ll make it blow over faster.
That’s why i refuse to even go on vacations to miami this winter as my sister ask me to go on holliday with her there.
I even warn my parents not to go. Too risky. I would be scare to leave my hotel room or that my cardiac retired physician of a father got bullied by the thuggy US cops for no reasons than being Black.
I rather stay in Europe. I know there is racism everywhere but i have yet to encounter such recurrent violent behaviour by a cop in Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, ect…where i can go outside pass near a cop without feeling threaten to the least, and say ‘bonjour’ knowing he will reply to me politely with a smile on his face and never push me on the ground r agresse me even during a mere inquiry as the situation above should have been. ewww
It’s like modern pogroms happening in the US day in, day out where trigger happy cops are the agressors and act like savage beasts showing a nasty image of those who have the autority to help people in the most advance country.
It’s beyond shocking.
“The Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association defended Frascatore’s actions in a statement that said the arrest “under fluid circumstances where the subject might have fled, and the officer did a professional job of bringing the individual to the ground.””
Yup.