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No Accountability For Takedown Of James Blake

No Accountability For Takedown Of James Blake

He was not a terrorist with a dirty bomb in his suitcase.

He was not a stalker with a Glock in his fist.

He was not even a mugger with a switchblade in his pocket.

James Blake was not, in other words, an imminent danger of the sort that might have justified a police officer in tackling him to the ground last week, as much of the world has now seen in a surveillance video. All Blake was — more accurately, all the police believed him to be — was a guy who had committed credit card fraud.

And he wasn’t even that. Rather, Blake is a retired tennis star who was waiting outside a Manhattan hotel for a car that was to take him to the U.S. Open when he was grabbed and thrown to the pavement by James Frascatore, an undercover NYPD cop. This was for — it bears repeating — credit card fraud. Working from a tip and from a photograph, Frascatore attacked the wrong man. Blake says that during the assault, neither Frascatore nor his colleagues ever identified themselves as police.

Sadly, Blake’s account meshes seamlessly with other recent tales of thuggish policing of the type you never saw from Officer Pete Malloy on Adam-12. In his book, The Divide, Matt Taibbi tells the story of a musician named Patrick who was assaulted by three cops at a subway station after they apparently mistook a roll-your-own cigarette for a marijuana joint. Patrick thought he was being robbed. Then he thought he was being kidnapped. “Call the cops!” he cried out to passersby. It did not occur to him that the people slamming his head against concrete were the cops.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but something’s very wrong when you can’t tell the cops from the robbers.

You should not be shocked to hear that Frascatore’s colleagues apparently attempted to cover his backside; they failed to file required paperwork reporting the arrest. You should not be stunned to learn that his union stood up for him; union chief Patrick Lynch praised him for a “professional” takedown and criticized as “premature and unwarranted” Frascatore’s restriction to modified duty. Finally, you should not be surprised to find out Frascatore has a history of brutality complaints and is reported to be a defendant in two federal cases alleging excessive force.

You should not be shocked, stunned or surprised because, let’s face it: In America these days, a bad cop is more likely to win the lottery than be held accountable for his misbehavior. While we are apportioning blame for that sorry state of affairs, let’s not forget the politicians and members of the punditocracy who pretend that questioning police is equivalent to hating them or that the person who is critical of law enforcement is the moral equivalent of the psycho who guns a cop down for fun.

“Power,” Britain’s Lord Acton famously wrote, “tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” What we accord police in the absence of accountability comes pretty close to absolute power. From McKinney, Texas, where a police officer pulled a gun and threw a 15-year-old in a bikini to the ground, to Ferguson, Missouri, where police used the citizenry as a kind of municipal ATM, to New York City, where James Blake was tackled like an ISIS courier with a briefcase full of anthrax, we are seeing what that looks like and it isn’t pretty.

Blake has called for Frascatore to be fired, and that would be an excellent place to start. But we also need to talk about reform: better training, greater oversight, and strategies to interdict the cop code of silence — the “stop snitching” mentality — that makes too many good cops unwitting conspirators with too many bad ones.

At their best, police demand that crooks answer for what they do. It’s high time we started demanding the same from them.

(Leonard Pitts is a columnist for The Miami Herald, 1 Herald Plaza, Miami, Fla., 33132. Readers may contact him via email at lpitts@miamiherald.com.) 

James Blake of the U.S. reacts after losing to Ivo Karlovic of Croatia at the U.S. Open tennis championships in New York in this August 28, 2013 file photo. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Late Night Roundup: Supreme Court Hazing?

Late Night Roundup: Supreme Court Hazing?

Stephen Colbert got yet another major guest for his new Late Show: Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. And the two of them discussed the debate over whether there should be cameras in the Supreme Court itself. And for one thing, Colbert had a point: It sure would help with book promotion.

Larry Wilmore looked at the new conservative icon Kim Davis’ continued refusal to sign marriage licenses in Rowan County, Kentucky: “Hmm, so you’re telling me Kim Davis is collecting a government paycheck in order to sit around and let everyone else do all the work? I thought we called people liked that ‘welfare queens.'”

And unfortunately the far-right, heavily-armed “Oath Keeper” movement is also trying to get involved here. And so Larry interviewed some “real” Oath Keepers about how they like showing up in public and waving around their guns.

Conan O’Brien highlighted the news that Arnold Schwarzenegger will be the new host of Celebrity Apprentice — and gave a sneak preview of what Arnold’s catchphrases on the show might be.

On a serious note, Seth Meyers discussed the NYPD’s tackling of tennis star James Blake, and the surrounding issues of racial profiling and excessive force.

Tape Tells Story In James Blake Arrest Case

Tape Tells Story In James Blake Arrest Case

Sometimes police tapes can be misleading. Not this one. Sometimes suspects demand force. Not this one. Sometimes a cop has a really good reason. Not this one.

The videotape of James Blake being arrested in New York City last week leaves nothing to the imagination. Blake, a former tennis star, is the portrait of relaxation, leaning against the front of the Grand Hyatt Hotel, waiting for a ride, when a burly, plainclothes police officer comes barreling in like a blitzing linebacker, grabs Blake’s left arm, then the back of his neck, and forces him face down to the sidewalk.

Blake does not resist. He does not struggle. He later told the news media that he was speaking calmly, even acknowledging police have a tough job, but insisting the cop had the wrong guy.

Blake claimed that he was never read his rights, that the officer never followed his suggestion to check his U.S. Open ID, and that he was paraded past the public before ultimately being released 15 minutes later. Six plainclothes officers were involved, yet not one of them filed the paperwork required when a false arrest is made.

If Blake, a Harvard-educated biracial man once ranked among the top 10 tennis players in the world, hadn’t spoken out, you wonder whether we’d ever know about this. I doubt it.

That should bother us greatly.

By the way, here’s the crime the cops were investigating: credit card fraud. Not murder. Not a shooting. No reason to believe the suspect was armed. Yes, the man they were looking for bore a great resemblance to Blake (although he turned out not to be the culprit either). So what? Did the officer really have to pin Blake to the ground — without as much as a question? In what world is that OK? Maybe the old Soviet Union? Germany during World War II? Not here. This country. Credit card fraud? Was he going to slash the officer with an American Express?

Sure, the suspect might have fled. But if “possible” flight were justification, you should be tackled every time you’re pulled over for a broken taillight.

Now when these things happen — and they seem to happen every week — people scatter to familiar sides. Some defend police for having the toughest job on Earth. Some decry police as bullies. Some cite procedure. Some flip through law books.

But nobody should ignore the fact that this cop, James Frascatore, has been sued at least four times for roughing up suspects during arrests. And he has been on the New York force for only four years.

I’m no mathematician, but that’s a pretty bad average.

And so the same way we ask how a drunken driver is behind the wheel after multiple violations, we should ask how this cop still is making arrests at this time in this country. And we should wonder if the victim of his aggression wasn’t a once-famous tennis player, would Frascatore, who had his gun and badge stripped by an embarrassed police commissioner, still be out there treating others this way?

You know the answer. It’s yes.

That, too, should bother us greatly.

You notice I’ve barely mentioned race. That’s because race should not be the lead on this story — although it sure may be part of it. It does seem that Frascatore, who is white, has issues with black suspects, given multiple New York media reports citing black individuals claiming he roughed them up (including punching a man in the face for a broken taillight). And if true, it’s beyond disgusting, and his continued presence on the force is a blight that should be wiped out immediately.

But the fact that Blake, 35, doing nothing, leaning against a front wall of a major Manhattan hotel, can be body slammed this way should speak volumes about how some cops handle things away from mean streets and racial tension.

“To me it’s as simple as unnecessary police force, no matter what my race is,” Blake told the news media. He also correctly pointed out that, “I have the resources to get to the bottom of this. I have a voice. But what about the person who doesn’t have the resources and doesn’t have a voice?”

That person would likely be bruised, scarred and wondering how this could happen in America, while police who didn’t file a report went about their business and a cowboy cop with four lawsuits against him continued to play Wild, Wild West.

And that should really bother us.

Because that person could be you.

(C) 2015 BY THE DETROIT FREE PRESS DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

Image: Ex-tennis star James Blake is shown handcuffed by a NYPD officer James Frascatore (R) in front of the Grand Hyatt hotel in New York on September 9, 2015 in this still image from a security camera video released on September 11, 2015. REUTERS/NYPD/Handout