A parade of witnesses testified yesterday that they were humiliated by cops searching for guns and drugs as part of an ongoing class-action suit challenging the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk program.
“[I felt] extremely, extremely violated, to say the least,” security guard Charles Bradley, 52, said in Manhattan federal court about being stopped and frisked by cops in his fiancée’s Bronx apartment building last year.
The officers had accused him of resisting, brought him to a local station house, strip-searched him, fingerprinted him then released him with a summons for trespassing, Bradley said.
“I tried to explain I’m a security officer. [The officer] said, ‘Listen, I’m trying to speak to you like a gentleman and you’re behaving like a f—ing animal. You’re going in,’ ” he testified.
The summons was dismissed.
Bradley was among several Bronx residents, all black or Latino, called as witnesses in the New York Civil Liberties Union suit against the NYPD’s 20-year-old program, which allows cops to patrol and make stops in privately owned apartment buildings.
The NYCLU argues cops unlawfully stopped more than 1,000 minority residents on suspicion of trespassing last year, and is seeking a court order mandating reforms. Attorneys for the city have argued that the program is lawful and has already been modified to address criticisms.
Testimony is expected to continue this week before Judge Shira Scheindlin.
Besides the NYCLU lawsuit, two other suits challenging stop-and-frisk tactics have been filed in Manhattan federal court.