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.
Well armed... intellectually, spiritually and PHYSICALLY... I hope... LOL
Cheers !
Which assault?
I would be laughing with ya... if it was not yet a likely defense....
We can start by making the law makers and law enforcerc (pity there is such a thing) obey and enforce the law.
I bet it’s easier to wipe ones chin than to get that nasty boot black off a tongue... good thing I will NEVER have to actually find that out...
= )
New York juries are quite generous in cases such as this.
I do not think in such cases they could be generous enough... no amount of money can replace someone’s peace of mind.
My motto: Do not attract the attention of Law Enforcement - even in death.
Almost every time, unless the "internal investigation" revealed something so egregious it had to appear in print.
Some cop missed an opportunity - if he bled or threw up, he should have been ticketed for littering.
Marry Me....
That's right. I hate cops except when they are attacking the people who will defend them, no matter what.
AHHHH finally! the fellow shows up to complain that the victim obviously had it coming- somehow. After all, the police wouldn’t have roughed him up if he weren’t somehow a bad guy or otherwise deserving.
Gimme long enough and I can give you a heart attack by looking at you.
Your original statement -
Those aren’t crimes, but police brutality is. She belongs in jail
It's disengenous to revise your statement and then act like you were oh so reasonable from the start. You went off half-cocked blanketly condemning the policewoman without considering all the facts. Yes, later you revised the statement, but I was refering to your original statement.
All we have is the one-sided story of a man who has filed a lawsuit against the police and that story, apparently, isn't even clear on his version of the truth. I'll err on the side of caution and not condemn these policemen, until we have more facts.
The only one described in the article.
That would be preferrable in my book.
Bet you thought that the police who killed the old lady in Atlanta were treated too harshly when they got jail time.
The policemen in that case pled guilty to manslaughter and the facts in the case showed that they falsified statements in their request for the search warrant, so why wouldn't I think they deserved jail time?
Now, if you asked me, do I think they are guilty of murder, that would be a harder question.
When are the bootlickers going to show up and defend this useless piece of human detritus?
She needs to be in jail.
We really do need dereliction of duty laws for police officers. If this happened with military police officers they'd be standing tall before the man.
If I am negligent in my job (I have access to hundreds of thousands of people's credit card numbers, home addresses and CVV2 numbers) I can be held personally responsible for it. Why do "public servants" who do virtually anything BUT serve the public get immunity for negligence on the job? Then on top of that they get cushy publicly-funded pensions!!!? Why am I paying for cops' pensions when I don't get one myself? I have to fund my own 401(k). It's about time public servants start paying their own way. I don't give a damn that they only make $50k per year. That's the going rate for one of the safest jobs in America.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.