Posted on 10/08/2007 9:23:47 AM PDT by SubGeniusX
A mild-mannered Brooklyn high school teacher says he was nearly scared to death by NYPD cops who mistook him for a perp.
When the violent encounter was over, Lester Jacob, 50, suffered a heart attack and was left on his own in the street by cops, who accused him of "acting."
In July he underwent open-heart surgery.
Jacob had the misfortune to be driving home through Brownsville, Brooklyn, on June 22 around the same time cops were on the lookout for a hit-and-run driver. Jacob, an earth science teacher at James Madison High School in Midwood, heard a siren, looked in his rear-view mirror and dutifully pulled over for the radio car behind him.
He wasn't prepared for what happened next. Two officers rushed up to Jacob's vehicle and pointed their guns at his head, according to a lawsuit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Cursing at him, they ordered Jacobs out of the car and roughly cuffed him.
"One officer crushed his knee into Mr. Jacob's back," the complaint states. "They then repeatedly slammed his head onto the car and then pressed his head against the car for some time."
Additional officers arrived on the scene with a witness to the earlier accident. The witness told them Jacob was the wrong guy.
"'I told you it was a white Maxima,'" the witness reportedly said, according to the complaint. Jacob drives a white Infiniti.
Jacob told the cops he was experiencing chest pains and began coughing uncontrollably.
A female cop said, "Nice acting," according to Jacob, and then drove off. Jacob said he struggled to drive home, stopping to vomit on the side of the road.
His wife rushed him to the hospital, where doctors determined he had suffered a heart attack.
"I was scared to death," Jacob said of his brush with the NYPD. "I was feeling terror."
His attorney John Lambros said there was no reason for the cops to handcuff or use excessive force against the 150-pound teacher while they were waiting for the witness to show up.
The cops were not identified, but their radio car number has been turned over to the Civilian Complaint Review Board. A spokeswoman for the city Law Department said the complaint is being reviewed.
No, as long as America's heroes are safe all is well.
The article didn’t say he had a bypass.
lol.... Having a bad day?
I don’t see his job as a science teacher as pertinent.
Me too, although at 285 lbs, and with high cholesterol, my arteries are crystal clear.
Go figure...
Is this the new, “two-kick” rule?
ya got me bubba.....I should have typed ICD....big deal, “heart attack” ain’t in either of them, because it means nothing to medical folks, and anything or everything cardiac to foolish lay people.
“::sigh:::: Calm down and untwist your panties.”
Not wearing any panties but this offensive superior attitude is why more and more people do not respect LEOs.
“What it means is, being roughed up by the cops could cause a heart attack to occur earlier. But it would have happened eventually anyway. “
Since we are all gonna die eventually I guess its ok if the police help us along a little eh?
“By the way, you need more exercise than jumping to conclusions if you want to avoid having a heart attack.”
No conclusion jumping here. I prefer the real kind of exercise.
Sweetie, I never implied he was 'gorging on fat.' That was someone else. But one doesn't need to weigh 300 lbs to have plaque build up and high cholesterol. My brother in law eats a very low fat diet and still has to take medications because, otherwise, he get plaque build up and his cholesterol goes through the roof.
We're both guilty of doing the same thing the cops did, we're assuming we know and understand his medical history and that we know best.
Nah, I'm not, but some things are just clear. The surgery happened a month after this incident. This incident may have caused him to have a heart attack earlier but it didn't cause the underlying problems which ended up requiring him to have surgery.
One should always err on the side of caution with chest pains, not just mock the skinny black dude who has them, and drive off for him for save himself as best he can, or not.
I agree. The cops acted inappropriately in this incident (if it happened as reported) and should be disciplined or fired.
“Ah, you can’t deal with your own shallowness and lack of character, so you attempt to impugn mine.
Classic liberal tactic which, ironically, proves my point all the more.”
Ah yes. When someone disagrees with you accuse them of being a “Liberal” (Burn the witch! Burn the witch!) Classic. The requirements to be a member of your little club of one are way too strict.
Nope. Indeed fully half the people who die of heart attacks don't have any of the commonly recognized risk factors.
OTOH, this doesn't help the cop's case does it? They assumed because he's skinny, he must have been faking the heart attack the stresses they inflicted on him triggered.
He could have died, and they did nothing to help. Nothing.
Hey butthead: You have no idea what I do or don't know. I didn't say the atherosclerosis was set off by the cops. The heart attack was.
I honestly see your point. My personal feeling is that the story makes it sound like every white car would have been subjected to the same routine. The police had a witness if true in the story who knew the make of vehicle. That is the main point I think as everything evolved from bad information.
An apology could have gone a long way but who knows.This is what sets a lot of people off. The seemingly set of double standards.
I would like to take this opportunity to say that there is absolutely no truth to the rumor that Pubius6961 was at the Folsom Street Fair...
and by his wife...*
*please note: this probably one of the "cheapest" shots I have ever taken against a fellow freeper... but when someone opens with a salvo then whines like a little girl when hit back I must question the testosterone levels...
This is one reason why I use a voice recorder anytime I am in my car... it is always on. Three years ago I got a cop transferred out after he cussed at me in racial terms... wasn’t his first time offending. Got me a few bucks, too. Getting your head slammed? That’s worth a mil with the right lawyer. And a heart attack? Another mil. That wanna-be-a-man lady cop is a fine example of NY’s finest.
” Does anything else matter?”
Well, yes. Excessive use of force for one thing. My own kid was surrounded, thrown down, throttled and had several guns held to his head when police mistook his car for another involved in a robbery.
Needless to say, when it was all over and done, there was no apology.
People stopped by the cops routinely have very "timely" medical emergencies.
The police deal with The Boy Who Cried Wolf a hundred times a day.
Apparently this man's emdical condition was so serious he waited a few weeks to have surgery.
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