More police brutality by the NYPD
Posted by Media Outrage on May 16, 2008
When will this stop? When will the law have the balls to condemn and convict their own? Somebody needs to clean this corrupt Police Department that seems to operate like a malicious street gang rather than hired officers of the law that are supposed to serve and protect. And folk wonder why people don’t call the popo. Read this mess…..
Via Nydailynews:
An irate off-duty cop went wild and attacked a traffic agent for giving his girlfriend a ticket, but police decided it wasn’t a felony – and ended up handcuffing the agent.
“If the NYPD doesn’t show respect to us, what will happen with regular civilians?” said Traffic Agent Celemi.
Celemi, 29, says Officer Eladro Mata beat him bloody last month after he ticketed the double-parked car in the Bronx.
Mata has been stripped of his badge and gun, but not charged with a felony, despite a law signed last month by Gov. Paterson that makes assaulting a traffic cop a crime punishable by up to seven years in prison.
Celemi contends he was not only beaten, but then hauled off to the 48th Precinct stationhouse in handcuffs for following his traffic supervisor’s order to remain at the scene and wait for an ambulance.
Shocked and bleeding from the ear, Celemi was jeered by the crowd as an NYPD lieutenant ordered him cuffed.
“I had been writing tickets and people standing on the street were applauding when I got arrested,” Celemi said.
“I always try to treat people in a nice way but I understand people don’t like traffic agents. I knew that before I got the job and I learned it even more now.”
In his 14 months on the job, Celemi never had trouble like he did on April 16 when writing up a red car illegally parked on Webster Ave.
Mata showed up with his girlfriend and displayed his police ID, Celemi said. When he tried to put the ticket on the windshield, Mata shoved him in the chest.
“I told him he didn’t need to do that because I work for the NYPD just like he works for the NYPD,” said Celemi, the married father of two girls.
Mata pushed the traffic agent again, then threw a flurry of punches to his face and head. Celemi said he got three stitches in his left ear at Montefiore Medical Center.
He told an Internal Affairs Bureau investigator he wanted to press charges against Mata, but nothing has happened.
A spokesman for the Bronx district attorney’s office said the incident is under investigation.
Celemi’s lawyer said traffic agents appear to be treated like a “subclass” in the NYPD.
Mediaoutrage- What can be said about this viscous cycle of police brutality? We want to hear from you. Discuss…….
October 13, 2008 at 7:19 pm
This could be of interest for some of the readers of police brutality and corruption…
Police check points was not a common sights on Nigeria Highways until 1970s when check points where mounted to curb the activities of raising crime rates in the country.Today, these check points have been turned to violation of human rights and exhortation points making motorist especially commercial vehicles targets, those who refuse to part with money are threatened with arrest or detention while in some case lives are lost in the process, as with this case: “ in 1981, Dele Udoh, a popular Nigerian athlete based in the United States who was home to represent Nigeria at a tournament, was shot dead in policemen in Lagos, following an argument at a police check point”.
The above is an extract from Blessing Ocholi essay “Liberty to the Less Privileged”. This essay was ranked among the top ten essay in Human Rights Defence’s Essay competition 2008. If you would like to read more, visit: http://www.humanrightsdefence.org
Yours sincerely,
Tomas Eric Nordlander
HumanRightsDefence