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3 Cops Disciplined For Arresting City Officials At West Indian Day Parade
By
John Del Signore
Published Nov 10, 2011
Modified Nov 10, 2011
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By
John Del Signore
Published Nov 10, 2011
Modified Nov 10, 2011
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The Internal Affairs Bureau will discipline three officers for their role in the arrest of a City Councilmember and another city official as they were leaving the West Indian Day Parade in September. Video that surfaced after the incident showed Councilmember Jumaane Williams and Public Advocate aide Kirsten John Foy arrested after they had identified themselves, and Foy was violently thrown to the ground and handcuffed.
Williams and Foy say they were given permission to pass through two checkpoints as they left the parade—which was marred by violence—to get to a press conference. "I was actually handcuffed while talking to the chief of police telling him what was going on," recalled Williams, who blasted the arresting officers as racially-profiling liars. (Both Williams and Foy are black.) Shortly after the incident, the NYCLU filed complaints with the NYPD’s Internal Affair Bureau on behalf of the men.
IAB investigators determined that an officer used excessive force when shoving Foy to the ground, and that a supervisor did not provide adequate supervision. According to the NYCLU, the officer and the supervisor will receive command disciplines, while a third cop was reprimanded for not communicating that he had allowed the two men to pass through a checkpoint. Command disciplines "typically involve a loss of vacation days and a notice entered into the officer’s personnel file," the Times reports.
At a press conference today, Williams and Foy said they were glad to see the officers disciplined, but that what happened to them was all too common. "What happened to me was a symptom of a larger problem," Williams told reporters, and released a statement saying, "This needs to be a teachable moment for the N.Y.P.D. as to its unjust encounters with the hundreds of thousands of black and Latino New Yorkers that are subject to a discriminatory police culture every day."
For another perspective, we turn to Deputy Inspector Roy T. Richter, the president of the Captain's Endowment Association, a police union representing high ranking city officers. "This is about an elected official who was in a rush and decided to use his position to get through a police barricade," Inspector Richter tells the Times. "It is wrong that all these officers will now face discipline to appease some political purpose. Again, they were only doing their job."
Tagged
jumaane williams
Kirsten John Foy
racial profiling
west indiay 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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