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City Officials Detained by NYPD Say Officers Lied About Incident

By DNAinfo Staff on September 6, 2011 5:06pm

City Councilman Jumaane Williams spoke at City Hall press conference about his detainment by police on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2011.
City Councilman Jumaane Williams spoke at City Hall press conference about his detainment by police on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2011.
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DNAinfo/Olivia Scheck

CITY HALL — A high-ranking city aide and Council member who were detained by police at the West Indian Day Parade took to the steps of City Hall Tuesday to accuse NYPD officers of targeting them because of their race.

Kirsten John Foy, director of community affairs for Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, and Brooklyn Councilman Jumaane Williams spoke heatedly about their experience at a press conference outside City Hall Tuesday afternoon, insisting that police handcuffed and detained them because they are African American.

“It doesn’t matter who you are, where you go, you’re still black — that’s what I felt was being told to me at that time,” Williams said. “If we were elected officials of a different [racial] persuasion, we would not be in this situation.”

"We believe that had Mr. Foy or I been white, this would not have happened. Plain and simple," Williams added in a statement Tuesday, "It is a reflection of a culture which includes stop and frisk protocol that I hope after this incident will finally end, based on how unfairly it targets innocent black and Latino young men."

The councilman added that "police initiated everything," denying the NYPD's statement that Monday's detainments were precipitated by a rowdy crowd and an unknown individual who threw a punch at police.

“What they are saying are boldfaced lies,” Williams added.

Foy and Williams said they were were leaving the West Indian Day Parade Monday on their way to an after-party at the Brooklyn Museum when they were stopped at a security checkpoint.

The men said they presented their official city identifications and attempted to identify themselves, but that the officers refused to listen.

Soon, the two city officials were being restrained by police. Foy, a minister, was thrown to the ground, and both men where escorted away in handcuffs.

“I was actually handcuffed while I was on the phone with one of the chiefs of police,” Williams said.

A video of the incident, posted on the New York Times website, showed Foy backing away while addressing one the officers before being thrown to the ground.

A former employee of Al Sharpton's National Action Network, Foy said he had been trained in non-violent resistance.

In a Monday statement, the NYPD blamed the incident on a crowd that had allegedly formed at the checkpoint. 

“A crowd formed and an unknown individual punched a police captain on the scene,” the NYPD said in a statement released via email.

“In order to separate them from the crowd, Mr. Williams and Mr. Foy, who were handcuffed, were brought across the street and detained there until their identities were established and then released.”

But Foy and Williams, who were joined at Tuesday's press conference by some of the city’s top elected officials — including City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio — insisted that the punch never happened.

“I defy the police to show me one shred of evidence that a punch was thrown,” said Williams, who noted that he and Foy were the only ones detained in the incident.

Foy suggested that the police captain might have been struck accidentally by one of his own officers.

Neither Foy nor Williams were charged in the incident.

Foy’s boss de Blasio, who is Caucasian, noted at the press conference that he was allowed to pass multiple times “without incident” through the same checkpoint where Foy and Williams were arrested.

Borough President Scott Stringer also pointed to race as a possible factor in the detainments, linking the incident to the NYPD’s widely criticized stop-and-frisk policy.

“What happened to the councilmember and the director happens every hour, every half-hour, in this city,” Stringer said. “We cannot continue to target people based on their skin color.”

Council Speaker Christine Quinn was more reserved in her statements, but she too condemned the officers’ actions as “unacceptable.”

“[There’s] nothing that indicates the councilmember or Mr. Foy did anything wrong,” Quinn added.