Anti Federalist
07-06-2013, 06:25 PM
They undid my clothes, peered into my underwear: College kid sues NYPD over stop-and-frisk in Williamsburg
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/stop_sue_by_klyn_gal_8mwCHZnYQDlu0H0aSssefP
Here’s someone who might agree with Mayor Bloomberg’s controversial comment about whites being subjected to stop-and-frisk “too much.”
A white, vegan, 22-year-old Bard College graduate is suing the NYPD after cops allegedly violently stopped her on a Williamsburg street last year — and then frisked her to the point of a semi-strip search.
“My face and stomach were on the hood,” environmentalist and animal lover Samantha Rosenbaum told The Post, who claims in a Brooklyn federal court lawsuit filed this week that she was thrown against an unmarked police car in broad daylight, for no apparent reason, on July 17, 2012.
“I don’t think anyone, no matter what color you are, deserves to be treated like that.”
The case comes less than a week after the mayor drew heat by claiming whites are stopped and frisked at a higher rate than minorities relative to the number of offenders of each race.
“She thought she was getting kidnapped,” her lawyer, Michael Goldstein, said of the confrontation, which the suit alleges also involved a female cop opening Rosenbaum’s clothing and peering inside her bra and her under pants.
At the time, Rosenbaum, of Essex County, NJ, was interning at Vaute Couture on Grand Street, a vegan clothing store .
On her way back from a work errand at the post office, she noticed a kitten behind a gate in a nearby alley.
The 5-foot-1, 110-pound woman was squatting to coo at the kitty when all hell broke loose, according to the suit.
“Hey, stop!” a strange man yelled from inside a gold sedan.
“He was really aggressive,” Rosenbaum recalled. “I had no idea who he was, [so] I just kept walking.”
A man and woman ran from the car, threw her against it, and demanded to know why she hadn’t stopped and whether she had drugs, the suit alleges.
“This whole time, I didn’t know who these people are,” she told The Post. “Finally, after a few minutes, they tell me they are police.”
They weren’t having any of her “just stopping to look at a kitty” story, she said.
“I offered to show them the cat,” she said. “They had two people on top of me, and my arm was really hurting.”
It got worse from there, the suit claims.
As passers-by gawked, the female cop lifted up Rosenbaum’s tank top, pulled back her bra and peered inside, the suit claims.
The officer then pulled open Rosenbaum’s jean shorts and took another intrusive peek — inside her underwear, the suit claims.
“Multiple times, the defendant officers threatened to take plaintiff down to the police station and write her up for [a] felony,” the suit says.
“At this point, I’m just sobbing,” she said.
Finally, she said, “they told me they didn’t want me to have a bad impression of cops so they were going to let me go.”
“This is a very nice young lady,” said her lawyer. “This was a false arrest and imprisonment. It’s assault.”
City Law Department spokeswoman Kate O’Brien Ahlers said, ”The city will evaluate the claim,”
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/stop_sue_by_klyn_gal_8mwCHZnYQDlu0H0aSssefP
Here’s someone who might agree with Mayor Bloomberg’s controversial comment about whites being subjected to stop-and-frisk “too much.”
A white, vegan, 22-year-old Bard College graduate is suing the NYPD after cops allegedly violently stopped her on a Williamsburg street last year — and then frisked her to the point of a semi-strip search.
“My face and stomach were on the hood,” environmentalist and animal lover Samantha Rosenbaum told The Post, who claims in a Brooklyn federal court lawsuit filed this week that she was thrown against an unmarked police car in broad daylight, for no apparent reason, on July 17, 2012.
“I don’t think anyone, no matter what color you are, deserves to be treated like that.”
The case comes less than a week after the mayor drew heat by claiming whites are stopped and frisked at a higher rate than minorities relative to the number of offenders of each race.
“She thought she was getting kidnapped,” her lawyer, Michael Goldstein, said of the confrontation, which the suit alleges also involved a female cop opening Rosenbaum’s clothing and peering inside her bra and her under pants.
At the time, Rosenbaum, of Essex County, NJ, was interning at Vaute Couture on Grand Street, a vegan clothing store .
On her way back from a work errand at the post office, she noticed a kitten behind a gate in a nearby alley.
The 5-foot-1, 110-pound woman was squatting to coo at the kitty when all hell broke loose, according to the suit.
“Hey, stop!” a strange man yelled from inside a gold sedan.
“He was really aggressive,” Rosenbaum recalled. “I had no idea who he was, [so] I just kept walking.”
A man and woman ran from the car, threw her against it, and demanded to know why she hadn’t stopped and whether she had drugs, the suit alleges.
“This whole time, I didn’t know who these people are,” she told The Post. “Finally, after a few minutes, they tell me they are police.”
They weren’t having any of her “just stopping to look at a kitty” story, she said.
“I offered to show them the cat,” she said. “They had two people on top of me, and my arm was really hurting.”
It got worse from there, the suit claims.
As passers-by gawked, the female cop lifted up Rosenbaum’s tank top, pulled back her bra and peered inside, the suit claims.
The officer then pulled open Rosenbaum’s jean shorts and took another intrusive peek — inside her underwear, the suit claims.
“Multiple times, the defendant officers threatened to take plaintiff down to the police station and write her up for [a] felony,” the suit says.
“At this point, I’m just sobbing,” she said.
Finally, she said, “they told me they didn’t want me to have a bad impression of cops so they were going to let me go.”
“This is a very nice young lady,” said her lawyer. “This was a false arrest and imprisonment. It’s assault.”
City Law Department spokeswoman Kate O’Brien Ahlers said, ”The city will evaluate the claim,”