| Photo: Citizen Arcane |
Four men from Queens, New York are suing the NYPD because they say an angry cop arrested them after another group of men laughed at the cop when he was unable to catch a fleeing marijuana suspect on foot.
The arrests were made after cops approached a group gathered at Rufus King Park in Jamaica, Queens, on the afternoon of August 19, reports John Del Signore at The Gothamist. Police saw someone throw a bag in a garbage can, so they began frisking everyone to check for drugs, and one suspect allegedly told them he’d “smoked all the marijuana.”
Then the guy ran off, with one cop chasing him on foot.
When the cop returned after the guy outran him, he was out of breath, and some spectators at a nearby handball game laughed at the winded officer.
One of the cops allegedly then said, “If you think that’s funny, watch what I do to them,” and arrested the four men.
| Photo: DelMundo/New York Daily News |
| Ishmial Deas (left), Abdul Kabba, and Hasan Allen (right) were arrested and released by police after being held for a total of 31 hours. They have filed a lawsuit. |
The bag that had been thrown in the trash contained 31 glassine envelopes of marijuana, and the four men were charged with its possession.
The men said they were locked up for more than 30 hours by cops seeking revenge on a crowd of men who laughed at the officer after he couldn’t catch the suspect, reports John Marzulli at the New York Daily News.
The four men insist they didn’t even laugh, according to their lawyer, Gabriel Harvis, who filed suit against the New York City Police Department and 10 unidentified officers in Brooklyn Federal Court.
The men believe they were arrested because cops wanted to take their frustration out on them, Harvis said.
“The cops knew my clients had done nothing wrong, but they didn’t care,” said Harvis, who represents Abdul Kabba, Isaiah Barnes, Hasan Allen and Ishmiel Deas.
Police “were embarrassed, so they abused their power by locking them up anyway.”
The four were held for 27 hours in the 103rd Precinct station house for the district attorney dropped the charges. They were then held another four hours while the cop “finished the paperwork.”
