http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more-sports/ex-tennis-star-james-blake-mistakenly-tackled-white-cops-article-1.2353983

EXCLUSIVE: James Blake, former tennis star, slammed to ground and handcuffed outside midtown hotel by white NYPD cops who mistook him for ID theft suspect

Retired black tennis star James Blake, in an NYPD double-fault, was slammed to a Manhattan sidewalk and handcuffed by a white cop in a brutal case of mistaken identity.

The 35-year-old Blake, once ranked No. 4 in the world, suffered a cut to his left elbow and bruises to his left leg as five plainclothes cops eventually held him for 15 minutes Wednesday outside the Grand Hyatt Hotel.

“It was definitely scary and definitely crazy,” Blake told the Daily News. “In my mind there’s probably a race factor involved, but no matter what there’s no reason for anybody to do that to anybody.”

Blake, on his way to make a corporate appearance for Time Warner Cable at the U.S. Open, said none of white cops identified themselves, including the officer who charged straight at him and bounced him off the E. 42nd St. concrete around noon.

“Don’t say a word,” snapped the officer, who Blake said was not wearing a badge.

Blake — whose right eye appeared red hours later at the Midtown hotel — was only turned loose when a former cop recognized the man in cuffs and alerted the arresting officers, a police source said.

“That is James Blake, the tennis player,” the NYPD retiree told them.

The first cop involved never apologized to Blake for the physical thumping or the subsequent cuffing, the ex-player recounted.

Blake was only in cuffs for a minute after he was misidentified by a witness during a credit card fraud investigation, police said.

The Harvard-educated athlete was waiting for a car ride to the Queens tennis center after an interview with a magazine writer.

As he started texting on his phone, Blake looked up and saw someone in shorts and a T-shirt racing at him.

“Maybe I’m naïve, but I just assumed it was someone I went to high school with or someone who was running at me to give me a big hug, so I smiled at the guy,” Blake said.

He was adamant that the officer never said a word: “No, just rushed me.”

The unidentified officer picked Blake up, threw the 6-foot-1 player down on the sidewalk and commanded him to roll over facedown.

“I’m going to do whatever you say,” Blake recalled telling the cop. “I’m going to cooperate. But do you mind if I ask what this is all about?”

One officer replied: “We’ll tell you. You are in safe hands.”

Blake said, “I didn’t feel very safe.”

“You’d think they could say, ‘Hey, we want to talk to you. We are looking into something. I was just standing there. I wasn’t running. It’s not even close (to be okay). It’s blatantly unnecessary. You would think at some point they would get the memo that this isn’t okay, but it seems that there’s no stopping it.”

olice Commissioner Bill Bratton said Wednesday night he had directed internal affairs to open an investigation.

“The nature of what he described is not what we do, not what we’re supposed to do,” Bratton said on NY1. “I will not tolerate any type of excessive use of force on the part of my police, but as always, we have that saying, the first story is never the last story.”

One officer involved was placed on modified duty after Internal Affairs investigators viewed video footage of the incident, the NYPD said early Thursday.

A man who was standing near Blake was arrested in connection with the scam, police said.

Once he was told about his misidentification as one of the bad guys, Blake told the police to check his license — in his front left pocket — and his Open credential, in his back pocket.

The tennis great said he would like an apology from the department, and he wants to hear there will be repercussions for the officers involved.

Blake said at first he didn’t want to discuss the incident publicly, but felt he had an obligation to bring to light another instance of excessive police.

“I have resources to get to the bottom of this. I have a voice,” Blake said. “But what about someone who doesn't have those resources and doesn’t have a voice?”

"The real problem is that I was tackled for no reason and that happens to a lot of people who don’t have a media outlet to voice that to."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu0Bm_HfX-s

when I saw that on the news last night. Crazy there isn't much news about that incident since it occurred dude had his leg broken and actually missed playing time as result.

I got upset when one of the local news telecasts thought it was necessary to mention that James Blake was biracial. I think it was Fox 5 at 10PM, but I could be wrong.

placed an arm on a cop's shoulder.

Thabo goes to trial next month. They offered him a no jail plea deal with dismissal after 6 months but he rejected it. I hope he takes it all the way and goes after the city civilly just for the media attention.

he reacted to what was going on with Thabo and tried to defend him, but I never knew Thabo got charged as well. Still insane to be dude got his leg broken. Getting lumped up in the course of getting arrested is bad in itself, but a broken extremity is going too far. I guess since charges are pending against Thabo, it makes sense no new news has come out from Thabo.

Hardly....













You don't impress me!!




RIP Reggie...I love you!! http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb449/Mynewstuff2011/RegLover.jpg



http://penilegenius.tumblr.com/

the only thing you keyed in on was your disdain for his playing? This wasn't about tennis. *blink*

If you care that fuckin' much, log off and make go march!!


You don't impress me!!




RIP Reggie...I love you!! http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb449/Mynewstuff2011/RegLover.jpg



http://penilegenius.tumblr.com/

no one said, he's not a great player so its ok that it happened to him.

major

i guess if they will kill you over a few phillies, anything is possible.

PRobably not cause the nigga still got caught after the skirmish with James Blake.

Blake dressed like a thug, fit a description, and smiled at a plain clothes officer without the officer showing a badge. Blake did everything wrong. The cops were right to act accordingly. Blake is obviously a dangerous black man with little to no education, and he had no business being in Midtown Manhattan, especially dressed the way he was. He's a scary looking black guy, and the cops were right to fear for their safety. Anyone siding with Blake in this instance clearly does not know what they're talking about.

Now that the 'cism and 'casm is over:

It just goes to show no matter how we're dressed, how professional we are, how educated we are, we're still targets, no matter what.

"The police department, it's like a crew. It does whatever it wants to do" (c) Prince Paul

http://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=4&topic_id=12877268&mesg_id=12877268&listing_type=search

Damn dog...truly out of control

That's just a damn shame

Caseone, I hope you ain't visiting nyc any time soon.

Sheeit, i work right across the street from Grand Central...that coulda been me.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/11/nyregion/james-blake-new-york-police-officer.html

The New York Police Department commissioner apologized on Thursday for the mistaken arrest of James Blake, a retired top-10 professional tennis player, who said he was slammed to the ground outside his hotel in Midtown Manhattan.

The commissioner, William J. Bratton, said he wanted “to extend a personal apology’’ to Mr. Blake.

The officer who detained Mr. Blake, who is biracial, has been placed on desk duty. Mr. Bratton expressed concern about “the inappropriateness of the amount of force that was used during the arrest.”

An initial review of video evidence of the arrest, Mr. Bratton said, led him to believe that it may not have been appropriate.

Mr. Blake said he was slammed to the ground by a police officer outside his hotel on Wednesday and detained for 15 minutes after being mistaken for a suspect in an investigation of possible credit card fraud.

A team of officers, all of whom were white, approached Mr. Blake after a courier identified him as having fraudulently bought merchandise, police officials said.

The Police Department’s decision to place the officer on desk duty was a tacit acknowledgment that video of the encounter, which has been reviewed by investigators, raised questions about the officer’s actions.

The episode immediately drew criticism at a time when officers’ tactics are under withering scrutiny across the country, and police agencies and elected officials are trying to address concerns about how officers treat black people.

Mr. Blake, 35, whose mother is white and whose father was black, said he had cuts and bruises as a result of the encounter. He was in New York to make appearances for corporate sponsors at the United States Open on Wednesday when he said he left the Grand Hyatt New York on East 42nd Street and was accosted by a plainclothes officer.

“I was standing there doing nothing — not running, not resisting, in fact smiling,” Mr. Blake said on Thursday morning in an interview with ABC News. Then, he said, an officer “picked me up and body slammed me and put me on the ground and told me to turn over and shut my mouth, and put the cuffs on me.”

Mr. Blake, who retired two years ago, said the officer who pushed him to the ground never identified himself and was not wearing a badge that was visible.

The police commissioner, William J. Bratton, speaking on CNN on Thursday morning, rejected the notion that race was a factor in the misidentification of Mr. Blake.

“Let’s put that nonsense to rest right now,” Mr. Bratton said. “Race has nothing to do with this.”

The commissioner said that the police had a photograph of a suspect in the credit card fraud investigation, and that the man “looks like the twin brother of Mr. Blake.”

The officers who detained Mr. Blake acted on information from someone at the hotel who identified him as having bought a phone with false credit card information, Mr. Bratton said. The Police Department placed one officer on modified assignment, or desk duty, after reviewing video of the episode.

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Mr. Bratton also said that investigators had been trying to speak to Mr. Blake at his hotel, without success, and that they would try to reach him at the Open on Thursday.

Mr. Blake, speaking on ABC, denied that anyone from the Police Department had tried to contact him and asked for an apology and an explanation for the officers’ behavior.

Mr. Blake said he immediately told the officers he would cooperate in order to avoid a miscommunication. He said he felt “lucky” that he did not happen to show any signs of resisting as the officer rushed toward him.

“Instead of having a little bruise on my leg, I might have some broken bones or some actual injuries, because it didn’t seem like he was slowing down and he was going to continue that tackle,” Mr. Blake said.

He said he was speaking out to “let people know that this happens too often, and most of the time it’s not to someone like me.”

Plainclothes officers were at the hotel on Wednesday investigating a ring believed to be using fraudulent credit cards to buy cellphones, according to an official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the internal investigation into the episode involving Mr. Blake was continuing.

As part of the credit card investigation, the police had a private service deliver phones to a suspect at the hotel, the official said. Once the delivery took place, the suspect was arrested, the official said.

The delivery person then pointed out to the police two other people in the lobby to whom he said he had delivered phones a day earlier.

At that point, the official said, the officers “detained those two people as well.” One was Mr. Blake.

He was released after a retired police officer recognized him.

.

This profiling mess is out of control.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/12/nyregion/video-captures-new-york-officer-manhandling-tennis-star-during-arrest.html?_r=0

...if that's proper procedure for credit card fraud

there's a list of MFers for homie to takedown

weird that the cry is officers fear for their lives

but nobody wants to use this video to illustrate why

should be easy to see how this could have gone left quick

and imagine the spin had it not all been caught on camera

+ celebrity

they're not gonna talk about that

In the NY Post today, there's an article on Blake.
http://nypost.com/2015/09/12/james-blake-body-slamming-cop-should-be-fired/

From the article:
A relative of the cop slammed Blake’s demands as “absurd.”
“James Blake should try to be a police officer and worry if he is going to be shot every day and see how he does his job,” the fuming family member told The Post. “He should accept the apology and move on.”

This fucking idiot goes on to say the officer is "being railroaded" because of the current climate.

Nothing I can say hasn't already been felt, but these cowards are feeling the effects of some shit THEY STARTED AND CLEARLY CONTINUE and now they whine about it??!!!

I hope this dumb bitch has a comeuppance.
Motherfucker I'M worrying if I'm gonna get shot every day and I didn't sign up for shit.
Sometimes calling a bitch a cunt isn't enough...and I'd say the same thing if it was a guy saying it.

"Worrying" is the wrong verb in this officers case.

>“James Blake should try to be a police officer and worry if
>he is going to be shot every day and see how he does his
>job,” the fuming family member told The Post.

The fuck is this person talking about? It's much more likely to be shot as a black man than as a cop. We live that shit every day.

how oblivious
~~~~
When you are born, you cry, and the world rejoices. Live so that when you die, you rejoice, and the world cries.
~~~~
You cannot hate people for their own good.

Anyone know of any good books that would explain why the police union in NYC is so powerful? In incidents like this, it amazes me that the city has to jump through hoops and ladders to punish cops that clearly are in the wrong and I'm guessing one of the reasons is the strength of the police union in NYC. Looking to get clarity on how they got to become so powerful.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jan/13/new-york-police-unions-powerful
http://qz.com/317338/the-nyc-police-union-has-a-long-history-of-bullying-city-hall/

I'll give those a gander when I get home tonight. Interesting to see The Guardian have insight on the subject since it's a British news organization if I'm not mistaken.

Based off of British drawn guidelines. If I'm not mistaken police in the North were quickly used by the factory owners i.e. the wealth holders of that time to enforce and carry out corrupt policies. This link should lead to that information.

http://plsonline.eku.edu/insidelook/brief-history-slavery-and-origins-american-policing

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

Movies I need y'all bastids to see so we can discuss:

Five Star - https://goo.gl/jBHbVv
Appropriate Behavior - http://goo.gl/isCzTM
Ma

about Police Brutality until it happened to him?

I will go ahead and say I know nothing about dude's politics at all so this is just a wild assumption.

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

Movies I need y'all bastids to see so we can discuss:

Five Star - https://goo.gl/jBHbVv
Appropriate Behavior - http://goo.gl/isCzTM
Ma

he was quick to be like its not racial

thought he caveated to say he thinks so

but yes i do think until it happened to him it was much of a thought

frankly he may pass for white alot *shrug*

but he's taking up the banner and said the apology isn't enough so good
he realized he has the perfect case that yes normally get shrugged off

~~~~
When you are born, you cry, and the world rejoices. Live so that when you die, you rejoice, and the world cries.
~~~~
You cannot hate people for their own good.