ST. GEORGE — An Egyptian-American Muslim man who heads the borough's Libertarian Party was handcuffed and taken into a room and searched by the NYPD after he refused a bag check at the St. George Ferry Terminal.
Hesham El-Meligy, founder of the Islamic Civic Association of Staten Island, was trying to catch the 8 a.m. ferry to Manhattan Wednesday and was trying to get through the doors into the waiting area when an NYPD officer moved into the crowd, stuck out his hand and said he needed to search his bag, El-Meligy said.
"As an American citizen I stood up for everybody's right to travel freely," El-Meligy, 45, told DNAinfo New York. "Such a concept of random searches goes against the text and the spirit of the Fourth Amendment."
He said four or five people with bags passed before him and believed he was targeted because of his ethnicity. He added he felt the checks go against the Constitution so decided to say no.
"It's 15 to 16 years after 9/11 — that's enough," he said. "I’m going to stand up for everybody's right, plus this is getting out of hand. It's not effective."
However, a judge ruled the screenings were constitutional in 2005 after a lawsuit by the New York Civil Liberties Union. The decision was upheld by an appeals court in 2006, the New York Times reported.
The officer and another NYPD officer who joined him told El-Meligy he could either get his bag checked or leave the terminal. El-Meligy got into an argument with the officers and even pulled out his pocket Constitution and asked them to point to where they were given the right to search, he said.
The argument lasted for nearly 10 minutes until officers finally handcuffed him, brought him into the police room of the terminal and searched him, the NYPD said.
He was charged him with disorderly conduct and trespassing and was given a summons by the Department of Transportation then escorted onto the 8:45 a.m. ferry by police officers, according to the NYPD and El-Meligy.
Police said that signs are posted in the ferry and online that passengers are subject to random screenings in the terminal.
But El-Meligy — who said he has never been arrested before — said signs don't override the Constitutional rights of all Americans.
"Regardless of who thinks it's right or wrong, I'm defending the rights of people by doing what I did," said El-Meligy, who added he's never been arrested before. "Nobody should be searched without a warrant or without probable cause or suspicion."
El-Meligy posted about the incident on his Facebook page and said he wasn't angry with the officers for the incident, he even hugged them afterwards.
"I'm not faulting the officers, per se, I'm faulting the policy and the training," he said. "There is no system, there are no instructions on how to stop and they leave it up to the office, which opens the door for potential abuse and biases."
He said he plans to fight the charges and the policy in court.
