A Police Bust Gone Wrong

By Keith Boykin, in politics
Monday, October 2 2006, 4:35AM

I'm walking through Times Square yesterday afternoon when I spot a black street vendor maneuvering a cart of goods off a curb and onto the sidewalk. A moment later, a white man in a baseball cap and sweatshirt confronts the vendor. The vendor responds loudly that he is not selling anything anymore. "But I saw you earlier," the white man responds. The defiant vendor continues to explain until the white man grabs the vendor and pulls the man's outer garment. The vendor keeps yelling something about how he's not selling anything.

Within a few seconds, the altercation turns violent. As the vendor tries to break loose from the other man's grip, the man shoves the vendor across the sidewalk and into a nearby doorway. The horrified crowd across from the Broadway theaters watches the scene unfold. Several people, including myself, pull out our cell phone cameras to document the incident. We assume the white guy is an undercover cop, but he's not behaving like one.

Someone in the crowd yells at the white man to identify himself, and the white man responds by pulling back his jacket, revealing a holstered weapon on his side. He grabs his wallet and opens it to show his badge. We're not close enough to read what the badge says, but it looks official. But instead of arresting the vendor or radioing for help, the white man pulls out a cell phone and places a call while he detains the vendor.

Meanwhile, a custodian or someone from the building comes out and assists the cop/detective with the cell phone. It's an odd situation. The vendor isn't going anywhere. His belongings are still unattended on the sidewalk, 10 to 15 feet away from the altercation. But it seems to me the officer in this situation handled the incident horribly.

The officer never identified himself. He never attempted to restrain the vendor other than by shoving him around. He never arrested the vendor. And he didn't have a radio to call in for help. I don't know if it's poor training or police abuse or both, but this was not the way to handle the situation. When I remember the Amadou Diallo shooting, I think It's no wonder that incidents with undercover detectives can spin out of control so quickly when some officers behave so unprofessionally.

There are many decent, well-trained police officers on the force. The bad ones make it that much more difficult for the good ones to be respected and taken seriously.

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