Right before the New Year, the city quietly settled a lawsuit with a homeless man stemming from a 2020 incident in which officers tried to force him to leave the train. His “crime” was taking up two seats. When he refused, they beat him, dragged him off and arrested him for felony assault.
The officers claimed he’d attacked them, but The City obtained police body cam footage that show them brutally punching him in the head. The man settled his federal lawsuit against the city for $135,000. I guess that’s one way out of the homelessness crisis!
Since 2015, the city has payed more than $1.1 billion for NYPD misconduct. Meanwhile, Mayor Eric Adams is proposing budget cuts that would gut New York’s public libraries. He’s claimed that the wave of migrants from the South are straining the state safety net, and warned the New Yorkers would see services decline. “There’s no more room at the Inn,” he declared, channelling the Innkeeper that turned away a pregnant Mary, I guess? (Also literally there are empty Inns in the form of vacated hotels all over but the hotel lobby won’t let the city do anything useful with them).
The City reports that one of the officers is facing discipline. That raises some questions. He’s facing discipline now? He’s racked up 13 CCRB complaints since 2005 (40 percent of NYPD officers have 0). In 2018, there were 3 CCRB allegations against him, for physical force and abuse of authority. 4 in 2019, including physical force and using a nightstick as a club. 3 in 2020, including a chokehold (right under the wire the month before the assembly banned chokeholds with the Eric Garner Anti-Chokehold Act!).
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