POLICE BRUTALITY WATCH: BROOKLYN WOMAN WHO WAS DRAGGED FROM APARTMENT BY POLICE SPEAKS OUT ABOUT HER ARREST (2965 hits)
NY1.com--A woman seen on cell phone video being arrested is now speaking out about the incident. She says police were in the wrong. NY1's Dean Meminger filed the following exclusive report.
Repeatedly breaking down in tears, Denise Stewart tells NY1 she did nothing wrong to cause NYPD officers to drag her out of her Brooklyn apartment only in underwear and arrest her.
"It's terrible! It's terrible! Terrible!"
Several neighbors shot video of the incident with cell phones.
"Humiliated, embarrassed...I have nightmares. I don't sleep at night. I just saw my life flash in front of me," Stewart says.
In the video, you can hear Stewart and her children scream several times that she has asthma and she can't breathe.
Police say they went to the Kings Highway building on July 13 responding to a call that Stewart was beating her 12-year-old daughter—an allegation Stewart vehemently denies.
The girl's Legal Aid lawyer says no abuse was found, but police insist the child had bruises.
Police admit they didn't have an apartment number when they confronted the family. Stewart says cops lied because they burst into the wrong home and that at least one cop realized that.
"I was peeping out of the door and he tapped him and says the wrong apartment. He said it. And he still ask the question, 'can I come in?'" Stewart says.
She says that when all hell broke loose and her family was pepper sprayed.
"A four-year-old baby—they sprayed him in the face," says one man in the video.
"I couldn't breathe and the way they were doing me like I was a criminal," Stewart says.
The former home health aide says she already uses oxygen to help her breathe and has a leg injury, ailments that have kept her out of work for a year.
Stewart and her attorney, Amy Rameau, say they want all of the officers involved in her arrest to be disciplined.
"The officers you see on camera in this case are a part of what's referred to as an impact team. They are rookies, fresh out of the academy. That's the information that I received. They are out together as a group and the idea is for them to get experience," Rameau says.
So far the NYPD and Brooklyn District Attorney maintain the 12-year-old was abused and Stewart resisted arrest.
I cannot help but wonder if N.Y. has enough money to pay all of its victims for the police Brutality sufferings? Didn't they go bankrupt before? Are they expecting mass rioting? How long will the people tolerate this old school revisitation of back-in-the-day tactics by N.Y.'s finest?
We shall soon see...I'm sure.
Thanks for the report Dear Sister...and do keep us updated.
This situation is not hopeless a and this abuse will find a solution and soon. Now that I'AM aware of this case I will be following this more closely egregious offense and I will be looking for the video as well.
God and I am the permanent solution!
Tuesday, August 5th 2014 at 7:59PM
Harry Watley
Sis. Siebra...ASA...The idea in integrating the police force with more black officers was suppose to prevent these blatant racial from occurring. Yet, we still see these things happening. Why are there black officers on the force if they cannot say or do something. It proves that black people need to police our own communities. The white officers had no regard for this black woman. Black officers with a black mind would have handled this hold incident differently. And no one would have been arrested or put to shame as what happened.
Tuesday, August 5th 2014 at 11:32PM
jamal Abraham
/* As Salaam Alaikum
Hear, Hear Brother Jamal!
Why do the Black Officers DO NOTHING...(but stand around and watch)? Remember that brother who punched the woman in the face, here in Philly? He got off with being called a hero the other day...yet he can get away with brutality on a defenseless Woman!
I am also waiting to see if and when the indictment(s) are handed out on the 'Choke Hold Murder' of the Brother, whom we all have seen and heard screaming - "I can't Breathe," before he died. There are two police caused murders of Brothers here in 'Philly' that require explanations and indictments as well...
It appears very similar to the time of the 'Black Panthers' re-emergence and mass-major protests from us, one and all.
Thanks again for this posting Sister Siebra and your comments, Brothers Gray and Abraham.
It seems to me that the both of you are agreeing with me that our only permanent solution is that we become a sovereign people in a country of our own. This means that when this happens we would have become a nation for the first time in our existence just like the children of Israel.
Jamal you say that Black people need to police our own community. This is a watered down version of sovereignty in a country of our own; you are thinking small. Black Americans want more than a community we want a country and we are going to have it in my lifetime because I am the Chosen 1.
Mr. Gregory the Black officers nothing because this is not our country!
