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Video: Councilman's Chaotic Arrest After West Indian Day Parade
By
John Del Signore
Published Sep 6, 2011
Modified Sep 6, 2011
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By
John Del Signore
Published Sep 6, 2011
Modified Sep 6, 2011
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Here's video of yesterday's seemingly stupid arrest of City Councilman Jumaane Williams (D-Brooklyn) and Kirsten John Foy, Public Advocate de Blasio's Community Affairs Director, after the West Indian Day Parade. Williams, Foy, and others were attempting to take a shortcut to exit the parade so they could make an appearance at a gathering by the Brooklyn Museum. But the NYPD had different plans for them. Here's video:
That defiant man who's thrown to the ground and handcuffed early in the video is Foy. Both Foy and Williams, who was wearing his official City Council pin, maintain that an officer wearing a white shirt at an earlier checkpoint said they could pass through, but they soon encountered other officers who ordered them to turn back. "A crowd formed and an unknown individual punched a police captain on the scene," Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, tells the Times.
Both Foy, who formerly worked with Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network, and Williams were taken to the Union Temple, a synagogue on Eastern Parkway, and detained for about a half hour, with no charges filed. Public Advocate Bill de Blasio had just returned to his Park Slope home after leaving the parade when he got a call about their arrests. "I am very concerned that the officers escalated this situation needlessly, even as two public servants were trying to show identification," de Blasio said in a statement. "I am calling for an investigation to get to the bottom of any police misconduct that occurred." NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly has agreed to conduct an investigation.
Tagged
arrests
bill de blasio
brooklyn
dreadlocks
jumaane williams
kirsten foy
nypd
west indian day parade
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
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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