Unarmed Man Killed By NYPD, Was National Guardsman

[jim49er]

NEW YORK -- An unarmed 22-year-old man shot and killed by a New York City police officer during a traffic stop in Queens Thursday morning was a member of the New York Army National Guard, authorities said.

Police said Noel Polanco was speeding and driving erratically near LaGuardia Airport just after 5 a.m. when he was pulled over by officers. New York Police Department sources initially told news outlets that as two officers approached the car, Polanco reached under his seat, prompting Detective Hassam Handy to shoot him once in the stomach. Polanco died shortly after being taken to a nearby hospital.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/04/noel-polanco-national-guardsman_n_1940259.html?icid=maing-grid7|maing6|dl1|sec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D215798

[osan]

NEW YORK -- An unarmed 22-year-old man shot and killed by a New York City police officer during a traffic stop in Queens Thursday morning was a member of the New York Army National Guard, authorities said.

Police said Noel Polanco was speeding and driving erratically near LaGuardia Airport just after 5 a.m. when he was pulled over by officers. New York Police Department sources initially told news outlets that as two officers approached the car, Polanco reached under his seat, prompting Detective Hassam Handy to shoot him once in the stomach. Polanco died shortly after being taken to a nearby hospital.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/04/noel-polanco-national-guardsman_n_1940259.html?icid=maing-grid7|maing6|dl1|sec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D215798

Filthy coward. If I had the billions of Buffet and Gates, I would put a bounty on his head.

[ClydeCoulter]

What the hell ever happened to "put your hands up"?

[aGameOfThrones]

What the hell ever happened to "put your hands up"?

Officer safety is paramount.

[paulbot24]

What the hell ever happened to "put your hands up"?

No doubt. Although, the only time I like to hear that is when I see a disco ball overhead.

[Anti Federalist]

Officer safety is paramount.

People, listen, GoT may be replying half tongue in cheek here, but he is absolutely right.

Rescuing kittens from trees or showing a poor sick blind boy a good day at the station house notwithstanding, these people are there to enforce the law, and do whatever they think they need to do to keep themselves safe.

That includes dropping your ass in a second if you so much as twitch funny.

Take every single encounter with these people as a deadly dangerous encounter.

They are not there to help and they are not your friends.

[Anti Federalist]

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said Thursday afternoon that a passenger in the car described as false the initial account that Polanco reached under the seat.

“The last thing she saw was his hands on the steering wheel,” Browne told The New York Post.

Of course, Mundane accounts do not jibe with the "official" story.

Nothing to see here folks...

[thoughtomator]

The fundamental method of government is "comply or die". Whenever in an encounter with government agents of any kind keep in mind that these people can and will escalate a parking ticket into an excuse to murder you, if you comply with none of the demands that follow.

[aGameOfThrones]

People, listen, GoT may be replying half tongue in cheek here, but he is absolutely right.

Rescuing kittens from trees or showing a poor sick blind boy a good day at the station house notwithstanding, these people are there to enforce the law, and do whatever they think they need to do to keep themselves safe.

That includes dropping your ass in a second if you so much as twitch funny.

Take every single encounter with these people as a deadly dangerous encounter.

They are not there to help and they are not your friends.

Safety First! (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?268629-Cops-open-fire-on-van....that-backfired&highlight=car+backfires)

Safety First! (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?390187-Cop-shoots-man-6-times-in-the-back-then-executes-him-at-close-range-%28video%29&highlight=car+back+fires)

Safety First! (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?383950-CALIFORNIA-COPS-OPEN-FIRE-ON-MEN-WOMEN-CHILDREN-BABIES/page7&highlight=car+back+fires)

Safety First! (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?360578-School-teacher-killed-by-police-for-rolling-up-her-car-window&highlight=patricia+cook)

[Henry Rogue]

I thought guns where not allowed in NewYork. Why assume he's reaching for a gun? Awful jittery devils. Years ago I got pulled over for speeding. (I usually don't keep my wallet in my back pocket when working or driving. Sometimes it ends up under the seat.) I kept my hands on the wheel till I told him where it was and he said it was ok to retrieve it. afraid they might shoot me back then. On a side note when I first read the title I thought it said no armed man. I thought how the hell can he drive a car and how can he reach under the seat? What an idiot I am.

[Origanalist]

I thought guns where not allowed in NewYork. Why assume he's reaching for a gun? Awful jittery devils. Years ago I got pulled over for speeding. (I usually don't keep my wallet in my back pocket when working or driving. Sometimes it ends up under the seat.) I kept my hands on the wheel till I told him where it was and he said it was ok to retrieve it. afraid they might shoot me back then. On a side note when I first read the title I thought it said no armed man. I thought how the hell can he drive a car and how can he reach under the seat? What an idiot I am.

Everybody makes mistakes, it's the ones that won't admit it that are really annoying.:cool:

[The Goat]

from comments


bobk in nh
52 Fans
44 minutes ago (12:53 AM)
The detective who fired has been in harrowing situations before.
Hamdy and six other cops were accused in 2007 of beating and terrorizing a Queens couple.
The city settled their claim for $235,000.

[Pericles]

I see - a repeat offender. ^^^ Not the first incident with this cop.

[Philhelm]

People, listen, GoT may be replying half tongue in cheek here, but he is absolutely right.

Rescuing kittens from trees or showing a poor sick blind boy a good day at the station house notwithstanding, these people are there to enforce the law, and do whatever they think they need to do to keep themselves safe.

That includes dropping your ass in a second if you so much as twitch funny.

Take every single encounter with these people as a deadly dangerous encounter.

They are not there to help and they are not your friends.

This is why it is so important to have laws that are few and just so that there are less frequent encounters with these people.

[Origanalist]

This is why it is so important to have laws that are few and just so that there are less frequent encounters with these people.

I agree with many here that believe "these people" (police) should not exist. They are an affront to liberty.

[Anti Federalist]

This is why it is so important to have laws that are few and just so that there are less frequent encounters with these people.

Oh, this...+rep

[Philhelm]

I agree with many here that believe "these people" (police) should not exist. They are an affront to liberty.

I agree, but I don't see the police being abolished any time soon. It is more likely to get stupid, unjust laws repealed. Not much more likely, as the number of stupid, unjust laws is legion, but more likely nonetheless. As much as I dislike cops, if they were allowed no reason to interfere with us as much as possible, they would be greatly deprived of power.

[Anti Federalist]

I agree, but I don't see the police being abolished any time soon. It is more likely to get stupid, unjust laws repealed. Not much more likely, as the number of stupid, unjust laws is legion, but more likely nonetheless. As much as I dislike cops, if they were allowed no reason to interfere with us as much as possible, they would be greatly deprived of power.

When it gets this point, where everything is illegal, there is no stopping it.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBdpINm9UBU

[Travlyr]

I agree with many here that believe "these people" (police) should not exist. They are an affront to liberty.

Same here. Police should be private security. If, you or I, want to hire security to keep our homes secure, then that is just fine, imo. But don't hire Police to hunt me down if you don't like what I am doing. Maybe I like what I am doing and maybe those around me like what I am doing too. As long as I am not hurting them, then what do you care? Why do you want me to drive 55 if 75 is okay?

[youngbuck]

So would it be okay for me or you to kill someone, who's unarmed, based off mere suspicion of potential danger? Or might it first be necessary that there be a clear and present danger to life or limb? These pigs are thugs, plain and simple.

[bolil]

I agree, but I don't see the police being abolished any time soon. It is more likely to get stupid, unjust laws repealed. Not much more likely, as the number of stupid, unjust laws is legion, but more likely nonetheless. As much as I dislike cops, if they were allowed no reason to interfere with us as much as possible, they would be greatly deprived of power.

The only front where people can challenge such laws is/are the state(s) front(s) (This is proved by the treatment of a certain, and rare, sane candidate for president). EG Medical Marijuana (MM). Monatana legalized MM two years or so ago at the state level. One year ago the Federal government sent armed thugs, to what were state-legal businesses, to arrest proprietors of state-legal enterprises while at the same time robbing them, at gun point, of their goods. The state authorities let it happen, and had the proverbial shit hit the proverbial fan would have backed the Federal (illegitimate) Governments play. Montanans worked within the system for a government that aptly recognized and served the people's needs and were nailed anyways.

In LA, Marijuana was on the cusp of being LEGALIZED... and, lo and behold, the Sheriffs (State employees) issued a statement saying they would enforce federal law should the local provisions change...

My point? How can we expect criminal orginizations to act within the bounds of law? Cops answer to their masters who are found, invariably, within the federal gov, and they never answer to common law.

Police: To serve and protect (The illegitimate elite)

[osan]

People, listen, GoT may be replying half tongue in cheek here, but he is absolutely right.

Rescuing kittens from trees or showing a poor sick blind boy a good day at the station house notwithstanding, these people are there to enforce the law, and do whatever they think they need to do to keep themselves safe.

That includes dropping your ass in a second if you so much as twitch funny.

Take every single encounter with these people as a deadly dangerous encounter.

They are not there to help and they are not your friends.

Point on tactics. If you cannot avoid contact with a cop, try to keep yourself bodily within striking range. That way, if it pulls its gun you may be able to disarm it. The primary advantage to the gun is action at distance. If you take that advantage away, things even up a bit. Note, however, that any attempt to disarm it causes everyone involved to be immediately thrust into a life and death situation. One attempts such a maneuver only if he is convinced he is going to be shot no matter what else he may do. It would be a good idea to acquire training in executing gun disarms. They are simple and fairly easy to master. The good bit is that if you act with resolve, and that is really the only way to go in such situations, you carry the advantage.

[osan]

This is why it is so important to have laws that are few and just so that there are less frequent encounters with these people.

Agreed, so long as it is recognized that this is a necessary condition and not a sufficient one. Even with few laws, a system that supports criminal behavior by police and other "government" officials and employees can be as readily rotten with few laws on the books as with many. The point is that they don't give a damn about observing the mandates of law, but only using those mandates to affect their home-brewed reigns of terror upon peaceable people.

[Anti Federalist]

See, all you cop haters are absurd.

No cop would ever shoot somebody with both hands on the wheel.

Just ask us, we'll tell you so.

This guy was a hero, don't you get it?

Now, move along, before I thump your head for you.




Portrait of Detective in Shooting: Hero, but Subject of Suits

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/06/nyregion/grief-and-anger-after-noel-polanco-is-fatally-shot-by-police.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

By WENDY RUDERMAN and J. DAVID GOODMAN

Published: October 5, 2012

The New York City police detective who killed an unarmed driver who twice cut off two police trucks on the Grand Central Parkway in Queens early Thursday has been hailed for bravery on the job, but also named in two lawsuits claiming police abuse.


On Friday, a portrait began to emerge of the detective, Hassan Hamdy, 39. He was assigned to the Tactical Apprehension Team — responsible for catching some of the city’s most violent drug and gun suspects. Just before the driver, Noel Polanco, 22, was fatally shot, Detective Hamdy and other team members had executed warrants on two apartments in a South Bronx building, handcuffing and taking five drug suspects into custody, the police said.

In 2001 and again in 2008, the city settled two federal civil-rights lawsuits — one for $235,000; the other for $291,000 — that named Detective Hamdy and several other officers as defendants in separate claims of police abuse.

One lawsuit accused the officers of breaking down the door of a man’s home without a warrant and assaulting him; another charged that officers repeatedly harassed a business owner.

“In the 2008 case, his role was minor at best,” a Law Department spokeswoman said Friday night. She said it was unclear what role Detective Hamdy had played in the earlier case. She said the city’s position was that “a settlement in a police case does not indicate wrongdoing on the part of the officer.”

In May, Detective Hamdy, a 14-year veteran of the Police Department, helped rescue five people trapped in a burning apartment while executing a warrant in a neighboring building in the Rockaways.

“We were in the right place at the right time,” Detective Hamdy said at the time. He and fellow team members forced their way into the apartment and felt their way along the walls of smoke-filled rooms before coming upon five frightened people, age 8 to 22, in a back bedroom.

Before becoming a police officer, Mr. Hamdy served four years in the Marine Corps, joining in 1992 and rising to the level of sergeant in an artillery division based out of Camp Lejeune, in North Carolina. He performed well there, his military records indicate, earning medals for good behavior and for performing his duties above and beyond what was required.

On Friday evening, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly met with Mr. Polanco’s mother, Cecilia Reyes, for about 15 minutes at her home to express his condolences, according to Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman.

Outside Detective Hamdy’s home in Centereach, on Long Island, a beige-and-white ranch with a fenced backyard and a pool, a Suffolk County police car sat idling by the driveway on Friday.

As details about Detective Hamdy’s life and career emerged, Police Department officials were silent Friday about the circumstances of the shooting. The Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, issued a statement saying that his office and the Police Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau were investigating it. “The public can be assured that the investigation will be full, fair and complete,” Mr. Brown said.

At 1:30 a.m. on Friday, Ms. Reyes, standing outside Ice NYC, a lounge in Astoria, Queens, where Mr. Polanco worked, struggled to get the words out. She pressed the palm of her hand to her mouth in an attempt to mute her sobs. She used her other hand to wipe her tears.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I just lost my son.”

Mr. Polanco’s mother said she did not learn that her son was dead until about 2 p.m. on Thursday, nearly nine hours after the shooting. She was at her job as a clerical assistant at Elmhurst Hospital Center when the police told her, she said.

“They are going to pay for this,” she said. “This is not going to stay like this. They are going to get justice.”

For the relatives and friends who encircled her, Ms. Reyes’s grief needed no explanation.

They lighted candles and placed bouquets of flowers at the base of a traffic light on the corner of 33rd Street and Broadway.

Photocopied images of Mr. Polanco were taped to a metal pole. The crowd parted and cleared a path for Ms. Reyes. Someone handed her a black marker, which she held aloft and pressed against a photo of her son dressed in Army fatigues. “Mom loves you,” she wrote, adding balloonlike hearts as bookends on either side of those three words.

The events leading to the fatal shooting began about 5:15 a.m. on Thursday, the police said. They said that Mr. Polanco was driving erratically, switching lanes while speeding, and twice cutting off two police trucks carrying nine officers of the Emergency Service Unit, the parent unit of the Tactical Apprehension Team.

The officers, members of the apprehension team, had just executed a warrant in the Bronx and were headed to Brooklyn to execute another warrant, and were traveling eastbound on the parkway near La Guardia Airport, the police said.

Mr. Polanco had just left Ice NYC, where he worked part time in the hookah lounge, filling and serving tobacco water pipes. Though he was not working, he had gone to the club to give a bartender, Diane Deferrari, and Ms. Deferrari’s friend, Vanessa Rodriguez, an off-duty police officer, a ride home. All three lived near one another in Corona, Queens.

The two police trucks forced Mr. Polanco to stop after one truck went in front of his vehicle, a Honda, while the second one maneuvered behind it.

After the car stopped, along a median of the busy highway, two officers approached the car, a sergeant at the driver’s side and the detective at the passenger side, where the window was open, the police said.Ms. Deferrari later told the police that she had heard the officers order those inside the car to show their hands. In an interview, she said that Mr. Polanco had no time to comply and that, in that instant Detective Hamdy fired the shot. Ms. Deferrari said she believed the shooting was the result of a case of police road rage.

No weapons were found inside Mr. Polanco’s car, the police said.

Edward Mullins, the president of the Seargents Benevolent Association, said he did not believe that road rage played a role in the shooting. “Do you know the level of stress and training that’s involved with this unit?” Mr. Mullins said. “And for officers to lose it over a road-rage incident? That doesn’t make sense. These are not rookie cops. These are experienced, veteran police officers who are used to being under heavy, stressful situations.”

Michael Palladino, president of the Detectives’ Endowment Association, the union that represents Detective Hamdy and other detectives, characterized the bartender’s version of events as “absurd.”

“No police officer would shoot a person who has both hands on the steering wheel,” Mr. Palladino said Friday night. “We have gone done this road before so I ask the public to withhold their judgment until the investigation is complete.”

On Friday afternoon, at the sprawling LeFrak City complex, where Mr. Polanco lived with his mother, uniformed National Guardsmen who served with him stopped to pay their condolences and offer support for the family. Many in his unit, the 1156th Engineer Company, live nearby, a Guard spokesman said.

Under a warm fall sun, a few stopped to make brief remarks to the reporters at the edge of the development.

Upstairs, relatives comforted Ms. Reyes, spoke to lawyers and planned a Saturday morning news conference that she would hold with the Rev. Al Sharpton. It was the second time this year that the 17th-floor apartment was filled with mourners.

Over the summer, Ms. Reyes’s husband killed himself, and friends said it was Mr. Polanco who found his stepfather dead in the living room.

[aGameOfThrones]

See, all you cop haters are absurd.

No cop would ever shoot somebody with both hands on the wheel.

Just ask us, we'll tell you so.

This guy was a hero, don't you get it?

Now, move along, before I thump your head for you.


No they wouldn't. They also wouldn't shoot a man with one-arm, one-leg in a wheelchair.

[acptulsa]

Why do you want me to drive 55 if 75 is okay?

They don't. They want you to drive at 75, so they can haul ass at 95 in a car they don't mind trashing because you bought it, just so they can feed your insurance company and give you a lecture which is equal parts sanctimoniousness and idiocy telling you how 55 is far, far safer than 75 but 95 is perfectly safe--for them, even though half of the cops who die on duty die of their own incompetence behind the wheel.

But you knew that, didn't you?

[presence]

What the hell ever happened to "put your hands up"?

where's the blood porn in that?

[Brian4Liberty]

Mr. Polanco had just left Ice NYC, where he worked part time in the hookah lounge, filling and serving tobacco water pipes. Though he was not working, he had gone to the club to give a bartender, Diane Deferrari, and Ms. Deferrari’s friend, Vanessa Rodriguez, an off-duty police officer, a ride home. All three lived near one another in Corona, Queens.

Interesting. No statements from that witness. She must want to keep her job.

[Anti Federalist]

Update:

EXCLUSIVE: Mother of National Guardsman slain by cop gets $2.5M settlement

Noel Polanco was killed by Emergency Service Unit Detective Hassan Hamdy, who fired on the serviceman after thinking he was reaching for a gun during a traffic stop on the Grand Central Parkway in Queens. Hamdy was cleared of wrongdoing but the city has now settled with Polanco's mother, Cecilia Reyes.

By John Marzulli / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, February 12, 2014, 2:30 AM

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/mom-national-guardsman-slain-2-5m-article-1.1610775#ixzz2tAh7yGtA

[Mani]

So wait a minute. A guy is reaching under his seat, and he got shot in the stomach??? How do you get shot in the stomach when you are bent over reaching?


While the police say the witnesses statements are absurd, how absurd is it for a guy to get a bullet in the stomach when his body is hunched down reaching for something? That's not absurd to anyone?


Oh well, no questions, just pay the family (coz he's a veteran and we support the troops!), we'll just raise taxes later, and we can push this under the rug.


I like how the cop in the backseat had nothing to say about the events that transpired in front of her. She's not a friend of the driver, she could be a perfect 3rd party witness, with the perfect background to give expert testimony. Oh wait....she just happened to be sleeping and didn't see any of it. Aw sucks.

[Occam's Banana]

Mother of National Guardsman slain by cop gets $2.5M settlement

[...] Hamdy was cleared of wrongdoing [...]

"Cleared of wrongdoing" ... yeah ... cleared of all 2.5 million dollars' worth of it, apparently ...

[AFPVet]

... sickening.

[limequat]

So wait a minute. A guy is reaching under his seat, and he got shot in the stomach??? How do you get shot in the stomach when you are bent over reaching?


While the police say the witnesses statements are absurd, how absurd is it for a guy to get a bullet in the stomach when his body is hunched down reaching for something? That's not absurd to anyone?


Good point. Cops always stand next to the b-pillar of the car to afford themselves extra protection. Most are right handed and will approach with their right hand on their pistol grip (or at least touching it). For a righty to shoot a driver in the stomach, he'd almost have to be laying on the hood of the car.

[FriedChicken]

So wait a minute. A guy is reaching under his seat, and he got shot in the stomach??? How do you get shot in the stomach when you are bent over reaching?


While the police say the witnesses statements are absurd, how absurd is it for a guy to get a bullet in the stomach when his body is hunched down reaching for something? That's not absurd to anyone?


Oh well, no questions, just pay the family (coz he's a veteran and we support the troops!), we'll just raise taxes later, and we can push this under the rug.


I like how the cop in the backseat had nothing to say about the events that transpired in front of her. She's not a friend of the driver, she could be a perfect 3rd party witness, with the perfect background to give expert testimony. Oh wait....she just happened to be sleeping and didn't see any of it. Aw sucks.

That does seem very unlikely.
Though he could have bending sideways and extending his arm to the side of the seat (like between the console and seat or door and seat) and left his stomach exposed for a shot.
Or he was shot from behind, in his back, and the shot landed in his stomach.

Why wasn't this cop wearing a camera?

[Mani]

That does seem very unlikely.
Though he could have bending sideways and extending his arm to the side of the seat (like between the console and seat or door and seat) and left his stomach exposed for a shot.
Or he was shot from behind, in his back, and the shot landed in his stomach.

Why wasn't this cop wearing a camera?

It makes me think that cop was extremely trigger happy.

If he was bent over he would have been shot in the back like you said, but multiple articles all mention getting shot in the stomach.

And if hes shot in the stomach either his hands didnt move or he made some kind of twitch or hand movement and the cop feared for his safety....we know the rest....sounds really trigger happy....


Either way i have my doubts this guy was bent over reaching anything.

[NorfolkPCSolutions]

What was under the seat? If it turns out that the guy was reaching for a cleverly stowed package of Skittles, and was about to offer Hassan one of the new sour apple varieties, that would be comedy.

Since that's probably not the case, string the cop up by the nose

[enhanced_deficit]

Victim was a guardsman and detective who shot him was a former marine? What are the odds of such occurences.

http://********************************/2013/08/06-1n009-copshoot-c-300x300.jpg (http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=niuWGMXWoBhs_M&tbnid=s0Gl2IItZxXyoM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnypost.com%2F2012%2F10%2F06%2Fnyp d-cop-who-shot-unarmed-gcp-driver-was-fearing-for-his-life-sources-say%2F&ei=XTP9UrPiE-SQ0QH2nIDACQ&bvm=bv.61190604,d.dmQ&psig=AFQjCNFcESjCGP1xIMjHfXVGbRJpyiDQfg&ust=1392411862243674)http://www.dominicantoday.com/image/article/17/209x400/0/A65F0620-0EC9-4D82-8112-4D232E2AF2B9.jpeg (http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=MpmEmVL_-gcf-M&tbnid=RbkvNQlqFmZ0gM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dominicantoday.com%2Fdr%2Floc al%2F2013%2F10%2F17%2F49319%2FProbe-into-soldiers-killing-by-NYC-police-a-big-win-for-Dominican-mom&ei=vjX9Uo7wBpOLkAeS8YH4Dw&bvm=bv.61190604,d.dmQ&psig=AFQjCNFcESjCGP1xIMjHfXVGbRJpyiDQfg&ust=1392411862243674)




"Cleared of wrongdoing" ... yeah ... cleared of all 2.5 million dollars' worth of it, apparently ...

Unarmed mom Miriam Carey was shot while her daughter was next to her, her family's lawsuit is for $75 Million.

[Anti Federalist]

///

[acesfull]

Any follow up on this tragic incident?

Acesfull