Ugly pictures
Squad car sent me flying – suit
STOP, FRISK and picture this.
A city worker claims he was stopped by plainclothes cops who then used a squad car to knock him to the ground when he tried to take a photograph of the vehicle’s license plate.
The disturbing allegations, contained in a bombshell lawsuit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court, appear supported by surveillance video. The footage shows Hashim Haynes, 26, standing in front of the unmarked police car. Suddenly, the car lurches forward, sending Haynes crashing to the pavement.
Lawyers for Haynes, a community assistant at the Taxi & Limousine Commission, say he could have been killed.
“To avoid a legitimate civilian complaint from Mr. Haynes, these officers were willing to recklessly endanger his life,” civil rights lawyer Gabriel Harvis told the Daily News.
Haynes was walking to his home on Elton St. in East New York, Brooklyn, about 9:20 p.m. on Aug. 21 when a car with two cops inside drove up to the curb.
The cops got out and frisked Haynes without informing him why, according to Harvis.
Haynes attempted to take a picture of the car as it backed up a few feet, then drove into him, according to the lawsuit filed last week.
As he lay on the ground, one cop searched Haynes’ pockets. The cops remained at the scene until an ambulance arrived, but did not accompany Haynes to Brookdale University Hospital. He was not arrested or issued a summons.
The stop-and-frisk encounter involving Haynes happened before cops were required to issue receipts explaining the reason for the stops. That began in September.
The NYPD did not respond to a list of questions about the cops’ actions.
Haynes, who is black, contends he was the victim of racial profiling.
“This incident is a wakeup call to anyone who thinks the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk practices have changed under this administration,” Harvis said. “If anything, the problem has worsened as officers such as these will seemingly go to any length to conceal their misconduct.”
A spokesman for the Law Department said the allegations will be reviewed when the city receives a copy of the suit.
Haynes contends that a preexisting back condition was aggravated by the impact. The suit seeks unspecified damages for the stop and the alleged use of excessive force.
The number of stop-and-frisk encounters plummeted in the wake of a 2013 ruling by Manhattan Federal Judge Shira Scheindlin that the police violated the constitutional rights of hundreds of thousands of minority-group members by using the controversial tactic.
There were 13,604 stops recorded by the NYPD during the first half of 2015, according to data compiled by the New York Civil Liberties Union. There were 694,482 people stopped by cops in 2011 — the vast majority of them black or Latino.