New York City Councilman Yusef Salaam, best known for being a member of the exonerated “Central Park Five,” experienced a stop by the NYPD in Harlem that he says targeted him, but the NYPD has commended the officer’s conduct as “professional” and “respectful.”
In a statement, Salaam recounted, “Last night (Friday), while driving with my wife and children and listening in to a call with my Council colleagues on speakerphone, I was pulled over by an NYPD officer in my beloved Village of Harlem within the 28th Precinct.” He said that he “introduced myself as Councilman Yusef Salaam, and subsequently asked the officer why I was pulled over. Instead of answering my question, the officer stated, ‘We’re done here,’ and proceeded to walk away.”
According to the NYPD, Salaam was stopped for driving a “blue sedan with a Georgia license plate for driving with dark tint beyond the legal limits,” a violation of New York State law. The NYPD’s statement described the interaction, noting that once Salaam identified himself as a Councilmember, the officer advised him to have a good night. The 41-second video released by the NYPD appears to show the entire encounter but does not include an explanation for the stop.
The Police Benevolent Association and the NYPD have praised the officer’s handling of the situation, citing adherence to procedures established following the 2007 shooting of Detective Russel Timoshenko through tinted windows. PBA President Patrick Hendry commended the officer for his “outstanding, professional work,” adding, “This Council member and every other elected official who baselessly smeared our police officers owe them an apology.”
Salaam, meanwhile, insists that the stop “calls into question how the NYPD justifies its stops of New Yorkers and highlights the need for greater transparency to ensure they are constitutional.”
This incident came to light on the same day as a planned ride-along between City Councilmembers and the NYPD, amidst a debate over the “How Many Stops Act.” The Act, recently vetoed by Mayor Adams, would require detailed reporting on all police stops. Salaam says that he no longer planned to participate in the ride-along. The City Council is expected to override the Mayor’s veto on Tuesday.
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13 Responses
Why was he not ticketed for the tinted windows? Far from being discriminated against, it appears that he got special treatment because of his position, and was let off an offense that would have got anyone else a ticket. He’s the last one who should be complaining
That is not crocodile tears.
He is very sincere and he wants to help his fellow New Yorkers.
Reb Yaakov Kamenetsky
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he said that we are guests here in America.
Why didn’t the officer issue a summons for the illegal tinted windows?
So he could do whatever he wants because he is a council member?
No wonder. This bum voted to overturn the Mayor’s veto. The NYC council is worse than the courts of Sedom back in the day.
He’s completely right. This is a Fourth Amendment violation. ALL traffic stops are. It’s ridiculous.
So councilmen are above the law?
These police are nothing short of vultures preying on anyone, & I would so strongly support Councilman Yusef Salaam voting to override Eric Adam’s veto, and make the abusive police have to write up, every single encounter
Crocodile tears are when you pretend to be sad over something which you in fact are not sad about, and may in fact be happy about. For example many of us will shed crocodile tears when seeing Gaza levelled (or on seeing pictures from World War II of cities such as Berlin, Dresden and Hamburg in ruins).
You need copy editors with a better command of secular English, or at least the ability to check online to confirm the meaning of unusual words and expressions.
The issue in the article is a politician being outraged at being ticketed even though he feels he is now among the privileged who are exempt from the laws that mere peasants much obey (not uncommon, Joe Biden and Don Trump do it all the time). Large man eating reptiles have nothing to do with it.
Soon he will be demanding a couple of extra trillion , because he was stopped for no reason
How is he driving Georgia plates but an elected official? Wouldn’t this call into residency issues if this were Congress or other?
Cops give politicians a break all the time. Yousef Saalam did 5 years in jail for a crime he did not commit. Let’s cut him some slack.
Avraham, we are not guests in America. We are equal citizens, and the country belongs to us just as much as to all its other citizens. We were here from the beginning, and we were equal partners in founding it. The fact that we have another home, and we plan eventually to move there, doesn’t change the fact that this is our country too. Eretz Yisroel is our true home; America is our home away from home, our country home or town house, depending on your perspective.
Yiddish Mama, it is not a fourth amendment violation. First of all, he had tinted windows, so there’s not even a question that the cop was right to stop him, and should have ticketed him as he would have done to anyone else. Second, even if there were nothing visibly wrong, a traffic stop is never a fourth amendment violation because driving is a privilege, not a right, so the police have the right to stop a car whenever they like, for any reason or none. They can’t detain you without a reason, but they don’t have to let you drive away.
Akuperma, he didn’t get a ticket. He should have, but the cop let him off, which he would not have done for any of us.
jdf007, the plates would only be a problem if it’s his car. Maybe it’s someone else’s car that he was driving with the owner’s permission. As for your question about Congressmen, they only have to be residents of the state from which they’re elected on election day. The day after the election they are free to move to another state and keep their seat for the rest of the term. (And they do not have to live in their districts.)
Huju, I don’t believe for a second that he didn’t commit the crime. The fact that someone else attacked the same victim doesn’t prove anything about whether he did too.