New York, NY - Man Gets One-Way Ticket to Chicago for Knocking on Door of Top NYPD Brass Asking for Water

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New York, NY - A homeless man got five weeks in the psych ward - and a one-way trip to Chicago - after he made the mistake of stopping at the home of the NYPD's counterterrorism czar to ask for a glass of water.

The Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating an anonymous complaint that cops went too far in making sure the vagrant wouldn't bother anyone again.

"These are people who are supposed to protect the city from terrorists," one source said. "What are they doing taking some poor drunk out of state when he didn't commit a crime?

"It's abuse."

The tramp, who was not identified in official documents, landed on the Bronx doorstep of Deputy Commissioner for Counterterrorism Richard Falkenrath's house last December.

Patrol cops alerted by Falkenrath stopped and questioned the man, but he was not arrested.

That would have been the end of it, but officers in the NYPD's intelligence threat assessment unit - who investigate threats against public officials and ranking members of the NYPD - decided more action was needed.

They flagged the man's name so they would be notified if he was arrested again, and members of the Joint Terrorist Task Force, which Falkenrath oversees, were also notified.

Falkenrath was not involved with the handling of the matter after he made the initial call about a vagrant knocking on his door to ask for water.

Several weeks later, NYPD transit officers nabbed the vagrant for jumping a Brooklyn subway turnstile.

Instead of charging and releasing the man, NYPD detectives hauled him to a Brooklyn psych ward, where he was held for five weeks, according to the complaint filed with IAB.

When the man was released, the NYPD got in touch with his family and a detective escorted him to a relative's home in Chicago.

"A detective takes someone out of state like that? That is not the norm," one insider said.

Top NYPD brass said it's doctors, not cops, who decide whether to hold someone in a psych ward. They said the officers followed protocol for dealing with an emotionally disturbed person by bringing him to the hospital.

They did not explain why it was necessary for a detective to escort him out of state.

Copies of the complaint were sent to the FBI, which oversees its staff on the Joint Terrorist Task Force, and to the U.S. Department of Justice, sources said. The feds referred the matter to the Police Department.

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