As we covered yesterday, former tennis pro James Blake was assaulted by several white NYPD officers on Wednesday in Manhattan. Blake is in NYC for the US Open, to do some promotional work and to watch the games. As he was leaving his Manhattan hotel Wednesday afternoon, a white undercover cop jumped him. Blake was thrown to the ground and scuffed up – go here to read his account of the incident.
Eventually, he was released because (surprise surpise), the cops had tackled the wrong guy. They were looking for a totally different black guy… who also happened to be innocent of the credit card fraud scheme that the NYPD was investigating. TMZ got a photo of the other guy, and yes, he does look sort of like James Blake. But a “passing resemblance” to a guy being investigated for a non-violent financial fraud crime is still no reason for ANYONE to be violently taken down on the street by no fewer than six police officers.
For what it’s worth, it seems like there was video of the incident and the video seems to prove Blake’s side of the story. New York City mayor Bill DeBlasio and NYPD police commissioner Bill Bratton have now offered public apologies to Blake, and they claim that they’ve been trying to reach him on his cell phone to apologize personally. The NYT did a detailed story about everything that’s gone down since Wednesday’s assault – some highlights:
Mayor Bill de Blasio: “I want to talk to him because I want to apologize to him on behalf of the City of New York. This shouldn’t have happened and he shouldn’t have been treated that way.”
Commissioner Bratton: He said he tried to contact Blake “to extend my apologies for the incident which he found himself involved in yesterday.”
What happened to the cop who took down Blake? “The undercover detective who detained Mr. Blake has been stripped of his gun and badge and placed on desk duty, a tacit acknowledgment that video of the arrest raised serious questions about his actions. Mr. Bratton, speaking at a news conference on Thursday, said he had concerns about “the inappropriateness of the amount of force that was used during the arrest.” An initial review of video evidence of the arrest, he said, led him to believe that it may have been excessive.”
Oh, and the cops didn’t even report the incident: “Mr. Bratton said the team of six undercover detectives involved in detaining Mr. Blake — all of whom were white — failed to report the incident, a breach of department practices.”
A witness, a newspaper vendor, says: “They were real aggressive, like he robbed a bank. They were shoving him around.” The witness said he saw Mr. Blake, his hands cuffed behind his back, being handled aggressively by a half-dozen undercover officers. The officers shoved Mr. Blake face first into a large, mirrored building support beam near the Grand Hyatt, Mr. Sanders recalled. With his head wrenched to the side, Mr. Blake tried to talk. “He told them, ‘I have my U.S. Open badge in my pocket.’”
[From The NY Times]
Bratton also said at the press conference that “I don’t believe at all that race was a factor” in the mistaken detainment of Blake. In Blake’s initial interview with the NYDN, he said that he believed race was a factor, but he simply stated it as his opinion, his reading of the situation. While I think a mistaken-identity arrest/detainment could happen to anyone of any race, I think the fact that the takedown was so violent shows that there was a racial factor at play.
Blake also spoke to Good Morning America on Thursday. He says that his wife – a publicist – told him he should go public about the incident. He is so even-tempered here. I would be full of righteous rage.
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