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 believe you have me mixed up with someone else. I didn't make these claims.
Being disciplined or fired is getting a pass? Um, okay.
If cops commit a crime they should be jailed.
I don't disagree. If this gentleman wants to press charges for assault, I say more power to him and good luck. I'd rather see that than see a multi-million dollar lawsuit. At least if charges are pressed, the cops who are at fault get the punishment, not the taxpayers.
“Being disciplined or fired is getting a pass? Um, oka’
yes, if they commit a crime then they should be jailed. Firing a LEO for inappropiate physical threats and violence is not discipline. That is ensuring the LEOs are qualified for the job.
“If this gentleman wants to press charges for assault, I say more power to him and good luck. I’d rather see that than see a multi-million dollar lawsuit.”
I agree however those charges won’t go anywhere and the Cities will ignore anything that doesnt come with a million dollar price tag. They hide behind procedure and policy instead of doing the right thing.
“At least if charges are pressed, the cops who are at fault get the punishment, not the taxpayers”
Its the taxpayers fault for not paying enough attention to what their public servants are doing.
That is true, but he wouldn't have open heart surgery unless he was having significant symptoms that would cause the doctor to do the testing required to determine surgery was needed.
In other words, the heart attack didn't do the damage that resulted in the surgery. There was already a problem with the heart. The heart attack was a symptom of it.
So you really don’t think pressing charges against the officers is the proper thing to do. Better to sue for a bunch of money. Got it.
“So you really dont think pressing charges against the officers is the proper thing to do. Better to sue for a bunch of money. Got it.”
Thats not what I said. Press charges against them but that won’t change training or policy. The politicians won’t care if some ‘out of control’ cop gets put in jail.
Because a few brownshirts on this site refuse to consider any other alternative to what they are being spoonfed. They are emotion driven bigots with thought processes that are virtually nonexistent. If you write that the story is unclear, or perhaps the complainant has an axe to grind(like a lawsuit)or let’s see what comes out in the wash or anything except the cops are wrong, you are immediately labeled a bootlicker or a jackbooted thug ad infinitum, ad nauseum. In short, they have an agenda and nothing else will be tolerated. That is why I have labeled them brownshirts, because they behave exactly as those unprincipled, nonthinking thugs did in the 30s.
You said those charges won't go anywhere. If that's the case, why press charges?
You indicated that suing would punish the taxpayers for not paying enough attention to what their public servants are doing. It seemed you were implying that was the better option.
By the way, I didn't realize that spending taxpayer money in order to punish taxpayers was a conservative value.
That's because there has to be a pattern or a particularly egregious abuse to make it to print.
Sure glad we have you as an expert on heart attackas on this forum.
oh.
And here I thought that they were just a bunch of tweakers.
“You indicated that suing would punish the taxpayers for not paying enough attention to what their public servants are doing. It seemed you were implying that was the better option.”
Assumptions are dangerous.
“By the way, I didn’t realize that spending taxpayer money in order to punish taxpayers was a conservative value.”
Holding elected officials responsible isn’t conservative? Threatening to address the issue in the next election is rarely effective. The collective memory isn’t long enough for people to remember things like this unless the election is around the corner.
A few letters to the mayor are ignored unless you are a major power player. Is there another effective way of getting our elected officials attention besides filing a lawsuit?
BS
Sure, but that wasn't what you said. You said the taxpayers should be punished for not keeping a closer eye on public servants.
What's really BS is that the cops get to investigate themselves when something happens.
LOL. I’m sure some of them are. I suspect a few, at least, are refugees from the now deceased “Reverend” Butler’s former aryan nations neo nazi compound that used to be located in northern Idaho.
I agree with you to a certain extent, in particular when it is a serious matter. Not for courtesy or dept regulation matters.
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