New York, NY – A city councilman who says he was detained by officers at the West Indian Day Parade because he’s black praised the police department Thursday for disciplining three officers in the incident but said he was concerned that lower-profile New Yorkers might not be getting the same treatment.
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“Just because there was some justice for us doesn’t mean that there was justice within the police accountability movement,” said Councilman Jumaane Williams, who appeared with Kirsten John Foy, an aide to Public Advocate Bill de Blasio who was also handcuffed in the incident. The men said three officers, including a supervisor, were disciplined.
Williams distributed a letter from the police Internal Affairs Bureau, which said that complaints about their treatment were partially substantiated. He said that determination led him to believe that investigators are requiring on-camera proof to discipline officers, even when an elected official is the one making a complaint. The practice leaves most people with no recourse if they are mistreated by officers, he said.
“We’re concerned about the high bar of evidence,” Williams said.
The police department didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The men have said they were allowed into a blocked-off area by a police official while on their way to an official event but were then stopped by officers who seemed disinterested in the official identification that marked them as city officials. Williams said he was repeatedly shoved, then handcuffed as he was speaking to a police chief on his cellphone. Foy has recounted retreating from the scene at the request of an officer who then knocked him to the ground and pushed his face into the grass.
Williams, who wears an earring and his hair in long dreadlocks, said after the incident that it never would have happened if he wasn’t young and black.
On Wednesday, he called on the mayor and police commissioner to meet with him and young people of color who have had negative experiences with police. He also called for the institution of mandatory training for middle school and high school students, to make sure they understand their rights in interactions with police officers.
Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, appeared with the men and called for greater transparency in the police department’s internal investigations.
“Discipline for the gross misconduct and civil rights violations that happened here should not be reserved for VIPs,” she said.
These cops r de lowest sh’beLowest whenever they have a chance to put their hands on anybody they do , they could talk on cellphones pass red lights for non emergency, etc etc ei efsher Lportom …..
a majority of cops are like this. nothing new here. most of them abuse the badge. my friend was arrested when he saw a guy in the his house in the middle of the night walking around with a gun and a flashlight. when he jumped on the guy who turned out to be a plainclothes cop,(they were called out to his house on complaints from his balck neighbors when he built a sukkah and they didnt like it,so they filed false charges of child abuse and drug use,so the cops suppossedly had a right to break into his house without a warning and without knocking) he was arrested and put into leg irons,and waist chains. mind you my friend is a frum skinny 140 lb ( when wet )weakling and a rabbi,so he wasnt a “threat” to the cops. Even the judge was bewildered at the indictment asking the cop if he was serious that they feared him when he was arrested. who wouldnt defend himself in his own house if he saw an intruder walking around his house in the middle of the night. the cops say that they called out nyp[d before they broke in,but according to my friend’s version it was a lie. had they identified themselves he would of taken action.no, he is busy with lawyers in this tammany hall scenerio.
“Even when an elected official is the one making the complaint”
What’s that supposed to mean? Are elected officials supposed to be more honest than the average guy?
“Young people of color who have had negative experiences with police”
How about people who have had negative experiences with young people of color?