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.
Unless, of course, they shoot me first and ask questions later. But that is not what happened.
IOW, a rightious stop...
No brain, no pain!
Guy's having a heart attack and they dump him in the street and go off looking for parking violators.
You know what I always say?
"Only if you resist."
so you are saying the odds are better than even that this guy would have had a Heart Attack ... driving home that day... whether or not he was accosted and roughed up by the police?
even if he had pre-existing conditions ... it is clear that the actions of the officers set off the attack at this time ...please educate youself about stress-induced myocardial ischemia
They come in around post 12, ready and eager to like the jackboots of any thug with a badge.
I guess you must have a different outlook on life that you would consider having a gun pointed at your head by a uniformed screaming maniac to be amusing.
Never.
Don’t forget to wipe the boot polish off your tongue.
yeah, 150lb fat guy. lol.
I vote jerk.
This 50 y/o has been eating fat for a long time, and his bypass number came up.
Did you happen to notice that he only weighs 150 lbs?
Maybe he is 3 ft 2 inches? Had a booster chair in the maxima? LOL
Yes, the victim is responsible for the condition of his arteries. But that's always true, and has never prevented a conviction for murder when a criminal's actions are the proximate cause of a victim's heart attack. And cops, due to their position of power and responsibility, should be even more at risk than an ordinary citizen in that regard.
And then there's the failure to provide appropriate assistance to a citizen whose life was in danger. That's what cops are paid to do, and these cops didn't do their jobjs. For that alone, they should be fired. And if that's not enough, the innapropriate use of force should also be sufficient cause for termination.
I'd be amazed if you could, since the DSM is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
But aside from that, are you claiming that there's no such thing as a heart attack? Or are you just complaining that they didn't use the more technical term "myocardial infarction"?
It's not hateful to have police know they are hired by the citizenry and not by socialist or communist government. Crime and punishment is in OUR hands. We merely HIRE people to do the dirty work.
Reminds me of people constantly saying, "Taking the law into your own hands". Unless they changed the constitution, the law never LEFT my (our) hands!
I am former law enforcement. These cops need to apologize or face disaplinary actions.
Yeeeehaaaawwww!!!
</sarcasm>
“If so, there’d be a whole lot of twenty-somethings needing bypasses. This 50 y/o has been eating fat for a long time, and his bypass number came up.’
I guess you missed the part where they said he was diagnosed with a heart attack following the event. Perhaps they should have tazed him as well as beating him up. At least the taze might have kept his heart going.
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