The NYPD is taking routine action after a video of a Brooklyn mailman’s arrest last, week went viral. Lt. Luis Machado who oversaw the arrest of Glenn Grays, a Black postal worker, has been stripped of his badge and gun and remanded to modified duty, reports the New York Daily News.
Grays was arrested while working a St. Patrick’s Day shift in Crown Heights Brooklyn on March 17. According to Grays he shouted at the officers, who were in plain clothes and an unmarked car almost, after they almost crashed into his mail truck.
Cops demanded identification from Grays. “My ID [is] right there on the side of the truck,” he says in the video. An officer tells Grays, “Let’s go get your ID,” and he replies “I’m not going nowhere.”
Under Lt. Machado’s supervision, officers Lazo Lluka, Miguel Rodriguez and David Savella swarm Grays in an unprovoked and unnecessary tussle, as they yelled at him to “Stop resisting!”
“I’m not resisting!” responds Grays, but is quickly overpowered by the cops, cuffed, and taken into custody leaving his truck unattended. Grays was charged with resisting arrest.
NYPD commissioner Bill Bratton said Tuesday (March 29) that he was “very concerned about the performance of the officers” as well as “the leadership role of the lieutenant involved” and “the processing of the arrest at the precinct stationhouse.”
Said Bratton, ”Based on what I witnessed on that, the various videos I’ve reviewed now, I have strong concerns about the charge against the individual.”
Without the video, Grays believes his story could’ve ended differently. “The only thing I think saved me is that it was on videotape,” he said in an interview. “Never been arrested, never received a summons. I was extremely terrified. I wouldn’t say afraid – I passed the stage of afraid. I was afraid that if I didn’t comply that something was going to happen to me.”
Bratton added that the cop’s deserve to be disciplined, not fired. Although Grays noted that “lately a lot of mistakes have been made by police officers,” he agrees with Bratton.
“I don’t want them to be jobless because they might have family, kids they need to support,” Grays said. “It’s sad that I thought that when I put on a uniform that I’ll be treated a little different, but it’s no difference. You know, I’m just another brother with a uniform.”
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Photo: screencap
