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.
I'd want to verify that. If in fact it was then I'd let it go. Security and privacy are far too important to not vigorously defend.
Nevertheless, we do know the following.
1) The cops in question do not know the difference between an Infiniti and a Maxima. Not a crime of course, but not reassuring either.
2) Mr. Jacobs had a heart attack.
3) Mr. Jacobs weighs 150 lbs
The rest of the story is Mr. Jacob's version. One's take on this apparently depends on one's pre-existing views of the NYPD.
We await developments, as they say.
“It’s not that the cop caused the heart attack that people are upset about, it’s that she laughed at him and drove away without calling an ambulance or offering him a ride to the ER.”
Actually it’s the attack that caused the heart attack that I am upset about. No one really expects anyone in New York City to be anything but rude do they?
No, but we do know this: He was arrested and of the approximately 26,280,000 minutes he's been alive, the minute he had a heart attack occurred immediately after his arrest.
This whole thing is going to hang on whether they had probable cause to arrest him. I submit that based on what we know, they did not. His car did not match the description of the suspect vehicle. If they didn't have probable cause then everything that happened after the minute they stopped him was unlawful.
It hasn't been established that anyone did this.
don't flame me yet!
this is what happens when you lower hiring standards and lower the starting salaries for cops. this is the type of cop you get. i hope the mayor and police commissioner and the union are happy. they did this.
you can now be CONVICTED of certain misdemeanors and easily become a new york city cop.
take my word on this: it is going to be a lot worse in 5 short years. you heard it here first.
thanks for the ping.
Meh, I dunno. They might take away my Southerner card for saying this, but the New Yorkers I’ve met seem like pretty decent sorts. They just have a different verbal ettiquite that’s kind of off-putting to outsiders who aren’t prepared for it. :p
A link to what? Your inane post?
Didn't happen to me. Happened in Dallas. A lot of innocent people were released from jail because of it. The cops planted crushed sheetrock and they falsified field-test results. IIRC the cops involved escaped without any jail time. IMO they should have received consecutive sentences adding up to twice the total of the innocent people's sentences.
AND, it's easy to get into a car without anyone knowing it.
yes it does. see post #288. nice to see you again, oz!
Master keys?
There are only about 5000 keys in any model type...
Wow. That's putting it nicely. You meant they're rude bastards.
I remember hearing someone on Fox News or CNN say in the aftermath of 9/11 that the event would at least deal them a dose of humility.
That’s...kind of an awful thing to say. O_o
Sounds like Atlanta headquartered CNN, doesn’t it?
So basically this individual said the same thing about New Yorkers that leftists said about Americans in general.
Was your 9/11 sentiment "for all I care New Yorkers can all go get themselves killed"?
Hah hah, pretty much, brother. Pretty much. :)
No, of course not. They're just rude, self-centered, heartless bastards is all. Remember that show where they put crying child actors on the street corners and only about every 20th person would help them?
Interesting. The initial New York impulse toward Southern verbal etiquette is that Southerners seem phony - that the sunshiney demeanor is an insincere put-on.
It takes New Yorkers a while to let their guard down.
BTW - a relative of mine is NYC born-and-bred and attended The Citadel at the age of 17.
Suffice it to say, there were numerous instances of communication breakdown.
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