Two policemen executed for Brown/Garner

[I.Can't.Breathe]

VIDEO: NYPD Officers Assault Unarmed Teen As He Surrenders

Bedford-Stuyvesant/Crime & Mayhem

NYPD Officer Hits Unarmed Teen in the Face With His Gun
By Murray Weiss on October 7, 2014 7:29am


BROOKLYN — Two NYPD officers are under criminal investigation after punching and using a gun to bash a 16-year-old suspect in the face despite the teen raising his hands to surrender, according to a video obtained by DNAinfo New York.

The surveillance footage obtained exclusively by “On The Inside" shows the two officers catch up to marijuana suspect Kahreem Tribble after a brief chase in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

As the teen stops running, one officer throws a punch at his face. Then, as the suspect raises his hands, the other officer hits him with his gun.

Tribble was arrested for possessing 17 small bags of marijuana and disorderly conduct on Aug. 29. At his arraignment, he pleaded guilty to a violation and was released with cracked teeth and bruises.

The officers from the 79th Precinct are now targets of a criminal investigation conducted by the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau and Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson.

“What’s depicted on this video is troubling and warrants a thorough investigation,” Thompson told “On The Inside."

According to court records, law enforcement sources and the video, the encounter started in front of 1311 St. John’s Place at 2:20 a.m. when three anti-crime officers spotted the 6-foot-2 teen peering into the window of parked mini-van.

When the officers got out of their car to approach Tribble, he allegedly tossed away a small black canvas bag and took off running. The officers — one with his gun drawn — gave chase, concerned that the suspect had a weapon, sources said.

Shortly thereafter, Tribble slows down and stops and appears prepared to be arrested. But an officer, identified as Tyrane Isaac, rushes up to him and takes a swing at his head.

The teen ducks the blow and then can be seen retreating — with his hands up — to a storefront gate.

Officer David Afanador — his gun drawn — then catches up and rushes straight to Tribble, hitting him in the his face with his gun, breaking a front tooth and chipping another.

NYPD Officer Punches Brooklyn Teen With His Gun View Full Caption DNAinfo
On the video, Afanador then holsters his weapon and retraces his steps to retrieve the canvas bag, leaving Isaacs to put the cuffs on Tribble.

But before he does, Isaac punches Tribble again and pushes him onto his stomach.

The video ends with Afanador waving the bag in front of Tribble’s face before smacking him with it.

A third officer, identified as Christopher Mastoros, can be seen taking no action to help Tribble.

Police Commissioner William Bratton has seen the video and was angered and embarrassed by it, a source said.

“Clearly, Commissioner Bratton has seen the video and reacted very aggressively in the sense of saying there have to be consequences when anything is done the wrong way," said Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday. He said he hadn't personally seen the footage, but was told what it showed.

“I see these videos as another piece of information that we need to use to improve the relationship between police and community and in many cases to heal the relationship between police and community.”

Sources say officials were particularly concerned about Afanador using his gun on the teen because it could have accidentally fired — injuring or killing him, another officer or an innocent bystander.

Afanador has been suspended without pay. Isaac was placed on modified duty, stripped of his badge and gun.

Both officers have been on the force for nine years and now face possible criminal charges and dismissal, sources say.

Mastoros, also a nine-year veteran, could face a departmental charge for failing to stop his colleagues, sources say. He is not part of the criminal probe.

Each of the officers has two other cases lodged against them by defendants alleging false arrest or being victims of excessive force, according to court records. The cases were not connected.

Mastoros made news two years ago when he was credited with helping save the life of a partner, Kevin Brennan, who survived being shot in the head after chasing a gunman into a Bushwick building.

The video is the latest to surface since the viral video of the tragic “choke hold” death of Eric Garner. Last week, Bratton told a confab of top NYPD officials that he was committed to rooting out bad apples engaged in brutality and corruption.

Sources say Internal Affairs was tipped off to the Tribble video a few days after his arrest. Roughly two weeks ago, IAB supervisors brought their findings to Thompson to determine if criminal charges are warranted.

Patrick Lynch, the police union president, said the tape does not tell the entire tale.

“As usual, the video fails to capture the offense that resulted in police action or the lengthy foot pursuit that culminated in the arrest," he said.

"Situations like this one happen in real time under great stress. It’s very easy to be judgmental in the comfort of an office while sitting in front of a video screen."

Tribble’s lawyer, Amy Rameau, told "On The Inside" that her client was heading home from a friend's apartment when the officers chased him.

"My client was minding his own business and they decided to chase him for no reason," she said. "Their account is concocted to justify what they did, to cover their asses, to legitimize their criminal conduct."

She said in addition to suffering broken teeth, Tribble was bleeding from his mouth and "begging for medical attention," but was only sent to Interfaith Hospital when other officers at Central Booking saw him.

She said she plans to file a federal civil rights lawsuit against the NYPD and the officers.

The clash has left the teen "petrified" of police and "traumatized and fearful that they will come after him again."

[I.Can't.Breathe]

Video: NYPD Officer Assaults Handcuffed Teen WHO WAS INNOCENT AND UNINVOLVED

Ten police officers stand by as a plainclothers officer assaults a teenager. Not one intervenes.

SEE IT: NYPD plainclothes officer delivers body blows to youth as he's being cuffed, gets suspended pending investigation
The video, taken on Monday, shows Officer John McDevitt — an anti-crime cop from the 7th Precinct — running up and punching an assault suspect after the teen was handcuffed against a car and surrounded by three uniformed officers on East Broadway near Clinton St., officials said. (WARNING: CONTAINS GRAPHIC LANGUAGE)
BY ROCCO PARASCANDOLA , BARRY PADDOCK , THOMAS TRACY POLICE BUREAU CHIEF Published: Friday, December 19, 2014, 1:41 AM Updated: Saturday, December 20, 2014, 2:22 AM A A A

The plainclothes NYPD cop caught on video repeatedly punching a teenage suspect on the lower East Side has been stripped of his gun and shield as Internal Affairs investigates the circumstances of the arrest, police said Friday.

“That officer has been suspended pending the investigation going forward,” Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said.

Police said two suspects, including the one struck, were arrested for assaulting another person with a cane.Police said two suspects, including the one struck, were arrested for assaulting another person with a cane.PreviousNextA 12-year-old African American child is seen viciously punched by a plainsclothed police officer after he was pinned to the side of a police car. A 12-year-old African American child is seen viciously punched by a plainsclothed police officer after he was pinned to the side of a police car. A 12-year-old African American child is seen viciously punched by a plainsclothed police officer after he was pinned to the side of a police car. A 12-year-old African American child is seen viciously punched by a plainsclothed police officer after he was pinned to the side of a police car. Enlarge

The video, taken on Monday, shows Police Officer John McDevitt — an anti-crime cop from the 7th Precinct — running up and punching an assault suspect after the teen was handcuffed against a car and surrounded by three uniformed officers on East Broadway near Clinton St., officials said.

Police said they responded to numerous 911 calls for an assault in progress.

Three teens were arrested on allegations of bashing a 20-year-old man with a cane after punching and kicking him. Their charges were dropped before the video was released.



rparascandola@nydailynews.com

[I.Can't.Breathe]

NYPD Breaks Into House and Murders/"Executes"/"Assassinates" Unarmed Teen

Ramarley Graham, Unarmed Teen, Unlawfully Shot By New York Police, Lawyer Says
Posted: 02/09/2012 7:51 pm EST Updated: 12/04/2012 4:48 pm EST

The killing of Ramarley Graham, a Bronx teenager, by police has sparked large street protests.

NEW YORK -- A week after police shot to death an unarmed 18-year-old in his grandmother's Bronx apartment, questions continue to swirl around the aggressive police tactics that led to the fatal confrontation.

Ramarley Graham died last Thursday after Richard Haste, 30, a New York police officer, entered his grandmother's apartment and shot Graham in the chest while he attempted to flush a bag of marijuana down the toilet. Graham was unarmed and police did not have a warrant to enter the home.

Graham's death has sparked street protests in Wakefield, a low-income neighborhood with a large African-American and Caribbean immigrant population. "They had no business kicking down the door. They went too far," said Tyrone Harris, 27. "They need to go to jail just like any other citizen."

Jeffrey Emdin, an attorney representing Graham's mother, called the police tactics unlawful. "They illegally entered the home," Emdin said. "They had no right to be inside. They had no right to use force."

Protesters linked the shooting to the NYPD's aggressive street policing program, called "stop-and-frisk," which predominantly targets low-income minority neighborhoods. In 2011, the program stopped and searched more than 500,000 New Yorkers, 85 percent of them black or Latino. The searches contributed to a record number of misdemeanor marijuana arrests last year.

"The public has every reason to question whether this shooting was the product of the NYPD marijuana arrest crusade, or whether it's the product of their hyper-aggressive stop-and-frisk program," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

"This isn't just the collateral damage of policing in a big city," Lieberman said. "The NYPD has adopted certain policies that are off the charts."

The NYPD did not respond to several requests for comment. But at a press conference last week, police Commissioner Ray Kelly expressed concern over Graham's death. "At this juncture we see an unarmed person being shot," he said. "That always concerns us."

The Bronx district attorney's office is investigating, with plans to present evidence to a grand jury for potential criminal charges. In the meantime, the shooting officer and his supervisor have been relieved of their weapons and placed on restricted duty, police said.

Whether charges are brought against officers will hinge on details investigators glean about the events surrounding the shooting.

Police officials said that members of a street narcotics squad broadcast over their radios that they saw the butt of a gun in Graham's waistband as he left a convenience store, under observation for suspected drug activity. The young man then fled up the block to his home after two plainclothes officers in an unmarked squad car told him to stop, officials said.

Footage from private surveillance cameras shows Graham walking into his grandmother's apartment building, a three-story home on a residential street.

Police officers, guns drawn, quickly follow and attempt to kick down the front door after finding it locked. In the back of the building, other officers swarm in through a rear apartment. The cameras do not capture what transpired inside, but officers quickly entered Graham's grandmother's apartment on the second floor. They did not have a search warrant.

The large number of officers at the house indicated that Graham wasn't likely to escape and that officers could have waited to obtain a warrant before storming the apartment, said Emdin, the Graham family's attorney.

"They can't take matters into their own hands like this and violate the Constitution," Emdin said.

John Wesley Hall, a criminal defense attorney in Little Rock, Ark. who has argued cases involving police searches before the Supreme Court, said a police suspicion that Graham might be carrying an illegal handgun was insufficient justification for entering the home without a warrant.

"If they thought he had a gun, they should have stopped him on the street and not waited for him to go inside," Hall said. "Any reasonable officer would have known that they needed a warrant to get into the house."

The most crucial question facing Haste, the shooting officer, will surround his actions inside the apartment.

Haste's partner told investigators that Haste identified himself as a police officer, told Graham to "show his hands" and then yelled "gun, gun" before firing, Kelly said.

But Graham's grandmother maintains that officers did not announce their presence entering her home and that Haste did not say anything to Graham before shooting him, Emdin said.

"I asked her if they said 'police' when they entered," Emdin said. "She says 100 percent no."

Emdin also questioned an initial police account describing the shooting. In statements to reporters the day of Graham's death, chief NYPD spokesman Paul J. Browne said that Graham "struggled" with Haste in the bathroom before the fatal shot.

But at a press conference the next day, Kelly, the NYPD commissioner, answered 'no' when asked whether investigators still believed a struggle had taken place.

"Who told them that? Why did they retract that one day later?" Emdin said.

The NYPD did not respond to emailed questions regarding department policies on warrantless searches, or inconsistencies in the police account of the shooting.

The New York Daily News, citing an anonymous police source, reported Thursday that Commissioner Kelly recently ordered a "high level review" of the Street Narcotics Enforcement Unit, responsible for the deadly raid.

The officer who shot Graham hadn't been trained in street-level narcotics work or plainclothes work, the paper said.

[I.Can't.Breathe]

NYPD Officers Cheer Teen's Murderer

Ramarley Graham's Father, Franclot Graham, Blasts NYPD Officers For Cheering For Richard Haste (PHOTOS)
Posted: 06/14/2012 2:36 pm EDT Updated: 06/14/2012 2:36 pm EDT

The father of Ramarley Graham, the unarmed teen who was shot and killed by NYPD officer Richard Haste in February, expressed his disappointment and anger after fellow officers applauded in Haste's support outside a Bronx courtroom on Wednesday.

Franclot Graham told DNAinfo, "It just goes to show they’re all part of the same thing. They were cheering him on for killing someone."

After Haste posted his $50,000 bail on Wednesday, Graham's wife Constance Malcolm similarly said, "That's how they work. You see it everyday." An attorney for the Graham family further denounced the insensitive display and said, "There is nothing to cheer here. A young man lost his life, and that is the man who took that life. It puts salt in the wounds."

Following intense anti-NYPD sentiment over the incident and the national uproar sparked by the tragic Trayvon Martin shooting, Haste was indicted on manslaughter charges. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

As Haste exited the courtroom on Wednesday, NYPD colleagues cheered in support, while demonstrators slammed the NYPD chanting, "NYPD, KKK, how many kids did you kill today?"

Haste's indictment marks the first time an NYPD officer has faced criminal charges in a fatal shooting since 2006's Sean Bell killing, in which Bell was celebrating his Bachelor party the night before his wedding when former detective Gescard Isnora and three other officers fired 50 shots at Bell and friends.

Although Isnora claims he overheard one of the men say, "Go get my gun," it was later revealed all men were unarmed.

[I.Can't.Breathe]

Pig-Semen Sucking Judge Lets Killer Cop Off Hook

Ramarley Graham Case: Judge Tosses Indictment Against Richard Haste, NYPD Cop Who Killed Bronx Teen
Posted: 05/15/2013 12:06 pm EDT Updated: 05/15/2013 12:17 pm EDT RAMARLEY GRAHAM

A Bronx judge Wednesday tossed out an indictment against an NYPD cop who shot and killed a Bronx teen.

ABC reports the judge said an assistant district attorney made an accidental mistake when presenting the manslaughter charges against Officer Richard Haste to the grand jury in the death of 18-year-old Ramarley Graham.

"This is an outrageous miscarriage of justice and an insult to the family and supporters of Ramarley Graham," Reverend Al Sharpton said in a statement. "We demand that a new Grand Jury is convened immediately and that the case is re-presented. We will be rallying and planning direct action at National Action Network’s Saturday action rally. The family will be present."

And Frank Graham, father of the slain teen, said they'd keep fighting for justice.

“If it means going back to the grand jury or if we have to ask the federal court to deal with this case; we are going to keep fighting no matter what,” he said in a statement. “Where ever it leads us we will go there. We will never stop until justice is served in this case, until Richard Haste goes to prison for murdering our son. If we start over, we will start stronger!”

According to ABC, prosecutors will get another chance to present the case to a grand jury.

In February of 2012, Haste and his partner followed Graham into his grandmother's apartment where Graham was attempting to flush a bag of marijuana down the toilet. Haste fatally shot Graham, who was unarmed, in the chest. The officers did not have a warrant to be inside the home.

Haste later turned himself in on manslaughter charges, to which he plead not guilty.

Last week Judge Steven L. Barrett expressed concern that the Bronx DA's office had erroneously told the grand jury, who voted to indict Haste, to disregard evidence that the officer received a warning from other officers that Graham was armed.

No weapon was ever uncovered from the scene.

Graham's death increased already fraught tensions between the NYPD and the Bronx black community. In the weeks after he died, demonstrators gathered outside the 47th precinct and chanted, "NYPD: KKK!" Bronx black community.

In the weeks after he died, demonstrators gathered outside the 47th precinct and chanted, "NYPD: KKK!"

[I.Can't.Breathe]

Video: NYPD Cop Punches Teen For Smoking Cigarette; Teen Suffers Brain Damage

VIDEO: Cop’s knockout hit that family says gave teen brain damage
BY DANIELLE FURFARO
The Brooklyn Paper
October 10, 2014 / Brooklyn news / Clinton Hill

A police officer apparently knocked out a Clinton Hill teen with one blow after stopping him for smoking a cigarette, hitting him so hard he now has neurological problems, according to the boy’s family.

Lawyers for Marcel Hamer say he was walking home from a store down Gates Avenue with friends near Waverly Avenue around 3:30 pm on June 4, when the plainclothes cop jumped out of a blue van and accused him of smoking marijuana. He and his friends started to run, then stopped, Hamer told a registered nurse at Brooklyn Hospital Center. The cop caught up to him, pushed him to the ground, and Hamer hit his left arm on a planter rail, after which he couldn’t move it, he said, according to medical records.

A video of the incident picks up with Hamer lying in the gutter, pleading with the officer to lay off as the cop holds him by the right hand, which according to Hamer’s account in medical records is handcuffed. The undercover orders, “Turn around.”

“Mister, it was just a cigarette, sir,” Hamer says, without rolling over.

Teens, apparently friends of Hamer’s, hover nearby and the officer turns to one, still holding Hamer, and threatens him.

“Do you wanna get f----- up?” the cop says.

The moment of the apparent knockout blow is partially obscured in the footage, but the officer appears to punch Hamer in the face with his left hand, prompting protests from Hamer’s friends.

“Yo, you wiling!” one teen says to the officer.

“Yeah, get it on film,” the cop retorts.

The officer then repeats his order for Hamer to “turn around,” but Hamer is lying completely prone.

“You knocked him out!” a female friend yells.

“Wake up, Cello,” another friend says.

A second man, apparently also an undercover officer, runs over and helps the first cop put cuffs on the apparently unconscious teen, and at one point reaches into his back pocket. Hamer lies unmoving in the 45 seconds between the punch and the video’s end.

“You going to jail on that one,” another teen says.

Hamer came to when paramedics were lifting him onto a stretcher and complained of blurred vision, a headache, and being unable to properly move his left arm, medical records show. He was handcuffed in his hospital bed and officers sat beside him during treatment, according to the records.

It is unclear what happened in the moments leading up to the punch, but Hamer’s family is calling for the officer to be criminally prosecuted.

“If what happened on this video was reversed and Marcel assaulted this officer in the same exact manner, Marcel would be prosecuted, and this officer should be prosecuted for what he did,” said attorney James Ross, who is handling the family’s civil suit.

Hamer, now 17, has suffered from headaches, dizziness, and memory loss since the incident, his mom said.

“He is always complaining of headaches and he cannot remember things,” Mary Hamer said. “He used to be pretty sharp, and now I am helping him.”

Retired state Supreme Court judge William Thompson is also a member of the legal team working on the case and said the incident is a symptom of a larger cultural problem in the NYPD.

“It is pervasive now, throughout the department,” said attorney William Thompson. “It is indicative of an attitude in the police department that is, ‘Them against us. Let’s do whatever we want.’ ”

The attorneys declined to release the name of the officer responsible. Hamer was charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct and pleaded guilty to a violation, according to Ross.

The NYPD would not comment on the incident other than to say that it is under investigation by the department’s Internal Affairs Bureau.

The law firm released the video the same day as another piece of footage surfaced showing officers in Bedford-Stuyvesant punch and pistol-whip an unarmed teen who has his hands raised in surrender. Police arrested the teen for marijuana possession, according to a report by DNAinfo.

On Oct. 2, police Commissioner Bill Bratton vowed to clean up the NYPD at a conference of department commanders.

“We will aggressively seek to get those out of the department who should not be here,” he said, according to reports. “The brutal, the corrupt, the racist, the incompetent.”

Grim gathering: The family of Marcel Hamer, center, says that a police officer stopped him while he was walking down a Clinton Hill street smoking a cigarette in June and knocked him out for no reason. His mom, left, is now suing police with the help of lawyer James Ross, right.

[I.Can't.Breathe]

Video: NYPD Officer Threatens Restaurant Patron With Rape and Sodomy

NYPD Sgt.’s filthy tirade captured in shocking cellphone video
By Kirstan ConleyMay 21, 2012 | 4:00am
Modal Trigger
WATCH: NYPD Sgt.’s filthy tirade captured in shocking cellphone video
WORKING BLUE: Sgt. Lesly Charles spews a disgusting series of insults at a group of citizens in a cellphone video supplied to The Post.
Photo:
WORKING BLUE: Sgt. Lesly Charles spews a disgusting series of insults at a group of citizens in a cellphone video supplied to The Post. (
)

A uniformed NYPD sergeant was caught on video unleashing a vulgar tirade against a group of Brooklyn men — threatening them with his gun even while condoning their criminal behavior, The Post has learned.

Sgt. Lesly Charles even indicated that some criminal activity is apparently OK on his beat — as long as he’s paid proper respect.

“You guys are hustling or whatever, I ain’t got no problem with that. Listen . . . do your thing,” Charles barked during the April 28 diatribe, which is now being investigated by the city’s Civilian Complaint Review Board. “But when I come around and I speak, you f–king listen. Tell your boys.”

The surly sergeant apparently was angry over a car that was illegally parked on Ditmas Avenue in the Kensington section.

His rant against the men was recorded on a 20-minute cellphone video obtained exclusively by The Post.

The footage includes Charles berating a young man in the roadway near a silver BMW, telling him: “This is my street. All right? If you got to play tough, that’s your problem . . . I do whatever the f–k I want.”

A short time later, Charles followed the group into the nearby No. 1 Chinese Food restaurant, flanked by two plainclothes cops.

“I have the long d–k. You don’t,” the cop bragged.

“Your pretty face — I like it very much. My d–k will go in your mouth and come out your ear. Don’t f–k with me. All right?”

After the target of his tirade insisted, “I didn’t do anything,” Charles retorted, “Listen to me. When you see me, you look the other way. Tell your boys, I don’t f–k around. All right?”

“I’ll take my gun and put it up your a– and then I’ll call your mother afterwards. You understand that?”

For good measure, the sergeant added: “And I’ll put your s–t in your own mouth.”

Charles added, “I’m here every f–king day. I don’t go home. I have no life. No kids. I do what I do.’’

The 21-year-old man who shot the video — and provided it to The Post on the condition of anonymity — was arrested that night and charged with disorderly conduct, which court records show was for ignoring the cops’ orders to leave.

Police sources said he has been arrested more than 20 times, including for petit larceny and weapons and pot possession.

An NYPD spokeswoman said the department is investigating the incident.
The man’s lawyer, David Zelman, said it was troubling that “there were other cops by [Charles’] side, and they seemed to take it in stride.”

Charles, reached at home yesterday, said, “I’m just doing God’s work. You know I can’t comment . . . Have a blessed day.”

A source close to the sergeant said that in the past, “all efforts at civility failed’’ in dealing with the men. They are known to loiter and play loud music, prompting complaints from local businesses, law-enforcement sources said.

“The sergeant was trying to get the message across in a way they could understand,’’ the source said.