DAVID FLOYD (REUTERS)
The lead plaintiff in the “stop and frisk” trial admitted on the witness stand yesterday that he didn’t know if he was stopped by NYPD cops because of his race.
“I have no idea,” said David Floyd, who is black, during cross-examination by a city lawyer. “I don’t know what’s legally behind it. I know I wasn’t doing anything.”
Floyd, 33, an activist who attends medical school in communist Cuba, testified earlier that he was twice stopped and frisked while walking near his then-home in The Bronx in 2007 and 2008.
Another plaintiff in the Manhattan federal class-action suit, which argues many of the stops are unconstitutional because the policy unfairly targets minorities, admitted yesterday that he lied to the Civilian Complaint Review Board about getting a cut on his inner lip during a stop-and-frisk.
Nicholas Peart, 24, said he concocted the claim to ensure the 2006 incident — in which he, his cousin and a friend were ordered to the ground at gunpoint — was taken seriously.
But Peart said the cops were cleared by the board, so he never reported three subsequent stop-and-frisks, including one in 2011. He broke down sobbing as he recounted getting cuffed and tossed in a patrol car while on his way to buy milk for his younger brothers.
“I felt criminalized,” he said. “I felt degraded.”
Also testifying yesterday was Police Officer Adhyl Polanco, who said he and other cops in the 41st Precinct in The Bronx were ordered in 2009 to start meeting monthly quotas of 20 summonses, one arrest and five stop-and-frisks.
“Either you do it or you’re going to become a Pizza Hut deliveryman,” Polanco said a sergeant warned.
Polanco, who’s on modified duty over an altercation with a supervisor, said cops were threatened with punishments, including loss of overtime and denial of days off, if they failed to meet the numbers.