Woman Jailed For Calling City Too Many Times To Report Drug Dealers

[Suzanimal]

Woman Jailed For Calling City Too Many Times To Report Drug Dealers


The NYPD is famous for their “if you see something, say something” policy. But a Bronx woman, 67, says she was punished by New York cops for reporting drug dealers in her neighborhood.

After Arles Cepeda, who lives in Castle Hill Houses, called the NYC “311” line “too many times” to report drug dealers, she was arrested and locked behind bars. Now she says she will file a federal lawsuit against the NYPD.

How many times is “too many?” She called 44 times during a stretch of 15 months. But she says she was making a point. She was reporting separate incidences of illegal activity all within that time period.

“I kept calling, but no one ever did anything,” Cepeda explained in an interview with the Daily News.

Cepeda says that her complaints to building management have been ignored, as have previous calls to 311 and 911. Most of the calls were about drugs, she explained.

Detective Theodore Stefatos, a narcotics investigator called her on Dec. 4, 2012 to tell her to stop calling them to report drug dealers, she says

Cepeda says that cops showed up after she called about the drug dealers lining her way in to her apartment. But when police showed up, the drug dealers dispersed. The cops said they didn’t see any drug dealers, so she was going to be arrested.

“I was handcuffed behind my back,” she explained, in tears. “And my neighbors saw me. I was so embarrassed.”

At the 43rd Precinct station, she was warned she would be institutionalized in a mental hospital if she continued to report the drug dealers.

“If you continue calling, I’m gonna take you to the pysch unit at Jacobi Hospital,” she recalled the detective saying. “He was very cruel to me.”

She was then charged with offering a false instrument for filing. Her lawyer, Samuel Cohen, says that the charge makes no sense. Cepeda made phone calls. She never filed anything in writing.

When they showed up to court, the whole thing was quickly thrown out. But that doesn’t change how she was treated, arrested, or threatened with institutionalization…. all for reporting crimes.

NYPD officials refused to comment when we asked them about this case.

http://countercurrentnews.com/2015/01/woman-jailed-for-calling-city-too-many-times-to-report-drug-dealers/

[tod evans]

The bitch deserves to be placed in the same cell as those she ratted on........

[Christian Liberty]

The bitch deserves to be placed in the same cell as those she ratted on........

I was sort of going to say this. What goes around comes around and all that. Not that that makes it RIGHT, but still.

[specsaregood]

She clearly made the mistake of reporting drug dealers that were paying for local PD protection.

[acptulsa]

Government says, if you see something say something.

Silly woman does.

Government rolls in with uniformed enforcers and marked cars, and hut hut around.

Everyone evaporates, guilty (if any) and innocent alike, before they get 'collateral damaged'. Just as any reasonable person would expect.

Silly woman gets cuffed and caged for wasting the government's time.

Moral of the story: Government is competent, capable, means what it says, and loves you and wants you to be safe and happy.






Wait. I think I got some part of that or another mixed up...

[Acala]

Maybe she will learn to mind her own damn business?

[donnay]

Sympathy? Look in the dictionary between shit and syphilis...that's where you'll find my sympathy for this woman.

[Ronin Truth]

She was probably just reporting too many cop or cop paid and protected drug dealers.

[FloralScent]

She clearly made the mistake of reporting drug dealers that were paying for local PD protection.

That was my guess.

[UWDude]

I have a friend who has had the cops called on her numerous times from a downstairs neighbor for dealing and making drugs.
Of course, my friend neither deals or makes drugs.
And it seems she calls the cops on other neighbors often too.
Lonely pathetic people using cops for entertainment and feelings of power.
Glad she got cuffed and jailed.

[mrsat_98]

The bitch deserves to be placed in the same cell as those she ratted on........

Along with the cop that threatened her,

[KCIndy]

Moron - errr... I mean.... More on the story:

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bronx/exclusive-bronx-woman-arrested-311-calls-article-1.2089172


Cepeda moved into the NYCHA property in November 2011. Her complaints to building management fell on deaf ears, she said, and her calls to 311 started shortly thereafter. Most of the calls were complaints about drugs. Others were about excessive noise in the hallways. And a few dealt with broken elevators.

Two men she believed to be dealers told her twice to mind her own business. Typically, police would show up, but the drug-peddling persisted, she said.

Detective Theodore Stefatos, a narcotics investigator at the time, called her on Dec. 4, 2012, to discuss her dialing habits. She says he showed up at her door with two officers.

Cepeda says she was told that police searched an apartment above her and found no evidence of drug dealing. Then she was told she was being arrested.

“I was handcuffed behind my back,” she said, fighting back tears. “And my neighbors saw me. I was so embarrassed.”

Cepeda was taken to the 43rd Precinct stationhouse, fingerprinted, put in a cell and processed. Several hours later, she was released with a desk appearance ticket, but not before she said Stefatos gave her a stern warning.

“If you continue calling, I’m gonna take you to the pysch unit at Jacobi Hospital,” she recalled him saying. “He was very cruel to me.”

......Cepeda hasn’t called 311 or 911 since her arrest.


Just guessing, but it sounds to me like she's one of these "neighbors from hell" who starts calling the cops the moment someone turns up a stereo or tosses a gum wrapper on the ground.

[fisharmor]

The reality of this situation - and the hundreds of others like it - is that the people who go through this, almost to a man, all continue to believe that the state shits roses and lollipops.

I was just talking yesterday to a friend of mine, a US citizen who is originally from Morocco, about an incident last month where he got shitty cab service, told the cab driver so, the cab driver called the cops, my friend said "Go ahead, call them" thinking he wasn't doing anything wrong, and then 5 minutes later he was face down on the pavement (wearing a 3-piece suit, no less) with two pigs' knees in his back.

He spent the night in jail with a metal bench to sleep on, no water, and he's diabetic and told them so, but to no avail.

Of course they made shit up about how he was acting and charged him with obstruction of justice. He lawyered up and got everything dismissed (because he's fortunate enough to have a few thousand bucks extra to take care of this sort of thing.... no idea how hand-to-mouth people deal with it... oh wait, they don't...).

But the thing is, the whole time he's telling me this story, he's careful to point out that the Fairfax County PD was all jack-booted Nazis, but the Sheriffs were all nice to him.

I say, dude, how can you say that?
Well, he says, they were nice to me.
Didn't you just tell me they run a jail where you didn't get any water and they didn't listen to how you're diabetic?
Well, they listened to what I have to say when I complained about it afterward.
So the fuck what, man? Are they running the jail? Did they not book you? Did they not keep you there overnight? What does it matter how nice they are to you while they're shitting in your mouth?

Then we got into how nice the judge was. I just let that slide...

I'm not sure I got through to him. I'm not sure I could. He's definitely not a fan of the cops any more, but if a guy that's had a move put on him that we've long since already determined can be fatal can't get out of the cloud and recognize that every part of the system feeds into itself and it all needs to be abolished, then I'm thinking it's not going to stop.

[aGameOfThrones]

Someone could have been killed from those 44 calls

[Philhelm]

In this one story we have:

1. See something, say something.
2. Crazy, nosy, busy-body, cat lady.
3. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
4. Psychiatry weaponized by government.
5. Enforcement of victimless crimes.
6. Possible 4th Amendment violation (apartment search).
7. Selective enforcement of law.

[Occam's Banana]

So let's see here, now ...

Cops excuse what they do as "just doing their jobs" ... and then they get pissed off at and arrest someone who wants them to "just do their jobs" ...

Somebody remind me - why do we need police, again?

Oh, yeah! Now I remember ... "to protect and serve" ... :rolleyes:

[DamianTV]

The bitch deserves to be placed in the same cell as those she ratted on........

My exact line of thought as well!

We have a huge problem with cops shooting citizens. But the cops are only reacting to us shooting at cops. It has become a war of escalation. The only way that we can end this type of war is to oust the Antagonizers. Its people like this that call the cops on YOU if she sees your kid playing without Body Armor. People like this that call to report if you leave your kids or your dog in a running car while stopped at the store for a pack of smokes. It has nothing to do with the Law in the minds of these types of people. They can and will call the cops on you for anything THEY think should be illegal, regardless if it really is. It is people like this that call the cops when they see a brown person walking down "their" street, hence "walking while black" or "walking while a minority" turns into a crime.

DO NOT CALL THE COPS.
COPS ARE NOT YOUR FRIENDS.
COPS ARE NOT THERE TO PROTECT YOU.
YOU HAVE THE POWER TO RESOLVE MOST THINGS WITHOUT COPS.

Far too often, good people are shunned from society for the absolute wrong things. Getting laid off from a job, you suddenly become a Pariah. Or if you have a different religious perspective than everyone else on your block, and that goes for both sides. If youre gay. If you supported Ron Paul and support Rand Paul. Or even if you have brown colored skin in the wrong part of town. Any difference of opinion can cause these rifts, which is also again why Privacy is so exceptionally important. These shunned Pariahs are ostracized by their local physical (not digital) communities despite really having done absolutely nothing wrong. These people that call the cops for EVERYTHING are the ones that need to be completely ostracized from society for trying to impose their will into your life, and exploiting the nature of Governments Monopoly on Violence to do so. Govt is more than willing to carry out the Violence of Enforcement, but it is these types of people that trigger the violence to begin with.

It is these very types of people that put BOTH the Human Life of LEOs as well as the Human Life of Citizens in the greatest danger.

[mrsat_98]

Sue the bitch for conspiring with an unwitting co conspirator (the cops) to deprive you of your right to bet let alone olmstead vs us.

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

No honor among thieves. And rats.

[jmdrake]

She clearly made the mistake of reporting drug dealers that were paying for local PD protection.

^This

[Anti Federalist]

She clearly made the mistake of reporting drug dealers that were paying for local PD protection.

Nailed it.

[Anti Federalist]

Cepeda hasn’t called 311 or 911 since her arrest.

Good.

Hope you learned your lesson.

[Working Poor]

Maybe she will learn to mind her own damn business?

I hope so.