To see the video and exclusive report from NY1 – click HERE.  You’ve heard the story or one like it…black kid walking down the street gets illegally searched.  They claimed there was probable cause; after all – he’s a black kid.  Now the official report didn’t use that as their explanation….no.  The report said he was carrying a baggie with some white substance that was in public view and another two baggies of what appeared to be marijuana…again – in public view.  So police officers swarm – New York’s Finest – and with overwhelming odds…they take him down and beat him up a bit.  And then they arrest him.  What the police didn’t realize at the time was that a nearby business had exterior video showing everything that was happening.

BUT – the video doesn’t show the young black youth Jateik Reed with any substance of any kind in his hands.  I’m just glad that he didn’t have a bottle of Arizona Iced Tea and a packet of Skittles in his hand or WHO KNOWS what this could have turned into.  

And it’s really, really bad for community relations when pastors start to call the NYPD “Our Enemies in Blue”.  The NYPD is absolutely and completely tone deaf on the issue of racial profiling which they utilize on both the Muslim and black communities … the people they’re sworn to protect and serve.

NY1 has the story:

Surveillance video from a nearby building shows Reed walking with his hands out, no drugs in view. John Eterno, a retired New York City Police Department captain, says it appears Reed shouldn’t have been stopped.

“The officers would have to only go in their pockets if they had reasonable suspicion, if there was a weapon in there. And given what I’ve seen on the film I’m not sure they had that reasonable suspicion,” Eterno said.

The Bronx district attorney later dropped the charges. As for the claims of hitting and kicking by police, the same criminal complaint said, “The defendant flailed his arms, refusing to be handcuffed at which time the defendant struck informant (the officer) in his nose with a closed fist.”

It does appear Reed tried to get away. But on the video he does not throw a punch. Still, after the melee starts, an officer appears to be checking his nose. Also in the exclusive surveillance video, a female officer walks over and kicks Reed while he’s handcuffed.

As we have shared before HERE - 23.4% of all NYC residents are black but they account for 53.0% of all NYPD “stop and frisk” police stops.  What’s wrong with this picture?

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