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Hasidic Man Wins $75K in Lawsuit Over NYPD Riot Beard Rip
By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 10, 2010
Modified Feb 10, 2010
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By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 10, 2010
Modified Feb 10, 2010
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It's been almost four long years, but a Borough Park man has finally gotten satisfaction from the city after getting violently arrested in a riot back in April 2006. In a settlement deal, the city will pay $75,000 to Chaim Appel, 41, who claims an NYPD cop tore off parts of his beard during his arrest. Appel says he was beaten, thrown against the hood of a car, then cuffed and taken away while his 9-year-old son looked on. "It makes it easy for me to sleep at night, knowing that other people finally know the truth of what happened over there," Appel, who had originally sought $11 million, tells the Post. So what did happen?
On April 4th, 2006, police stopped 75-year-old Hasidic man Arthur Schick for talking on a cellphone while driving. When he allegedly refused to show them his ID, they tried to arrest him, and cops say he resisted. Soon other Hasids got involved, and "angry onlookers turned into hundreds of protesters, who started fires with cardboard boxes, trapped a cop in his car, yelled 'Nazi Germany' and even prevented a tractor trailer from traveling down the road." Many Hasids were arrested, two cops were injured, and there were claims that police used racial epithets such as "This is how we treat niggers" and "Get the f---ing Jews out of here."
Appel was one of the ones who got hauled in; he tells the Post, "I was just totally in the wrong place at the wrong time." The police contended that Appel tried to trip a sergeant, but the charges against him were later dropped. Getting his beard ripped off must have hurt like hell, but at least the incident gave Appel a lot of street cred in the neighborhood—everyone points him out as the guy who got "arrested during the riots." He also gets $75,000.
Tagged
Beard
borough park
lawsuit
riot
suing
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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