Tennis star James Blake blasts NYPD for failing to notify him about trial for officer who brutally tackled him
TheGrio has launched a special series called #BlackonBlue to examine the relationship between law enforcement and African-Americans. Our reporters and videographers will investigate police brutality and corruption while also exploring local and national efforts to improve policing in our communities. Join the conversation, or share your own story, using the hashtag #BlackonBlue.
On Wednesday, tennis star James Blake who was violently tackled to the ground by an New York City police officer in 2015 lashed out at Mayor Bill de Blasio for failing to divulge that the cop had a trial about the 2015 case this week.
Blake said it would have been “common courtesy” but instead it looks more like a coverup.
—Spike Lee talks ‘Blackkklansmen’ and white supremacy: “We’re in a very… dangerous time”—
“It’s disappointing that the de Blasio administration and NYPD failed to notify me that James Frascatore was in a departmental trial yesterday related to the incident involving me in 2015,” Blake said in a statement released Wednesday night, reports the NY Daily News.
“But the lack of real punishment for Frascatore is the bigger travesty. Unfortunately, it is all too common for New Yorkers who experience abusive actions by police officers to be kept in the dark about NYPD disciplinary proceedings and outcomes,” he added.
Blake urged the NYPD brass to fire Frascatore after he misidentified him as a potential robbery suspect and violently tackled the tennis pro to the ground outside of a hotel in Midtown Manhattan.
Security cameras captured the shocking encounter.
In the case that Blake missed attending, Frascatore was charged with covering up the incident because he failed to immediately notify his superiors and he reportedly leaked an extended video on of the incident to the media.
Sources told the Daily News that Frascatore received a light punishment of the loss of a few vacation days after an internal investigation found the cop guilty of using excessive force.
—Democratic donor, accused of killing a young, gay Black man, will face no charges—
Through his attorney, Blake has expressed his disappointment with the cop’s punishment.
“Losing five vacation days for excessive force is a woefully inadequate penalty,” Blake’s lawyer Kevin Marino said in an interview. “Far from serving as a deterrent, a trivial penalty of that type would seem to be encouraging those inclined toward excessive force to go right on doing it.”
The officer’s lawyer, Peter Brill contends that his client acted appropriately and is being over-charged because of the publicity of the case. “It’s our position that he acted within his duties as a police officer, and the investigators may have been under undue pressure to charge minor misconduct due to the public nature of the incident,” said Brill.
Last June, James Frascatore told the New York Post that he planned to sue Blake, the city of New York, the NYPD, the director of the department’s civilian complaint review board and HarperCollins, the publishing house behind Blake’s book.
Frascatore took aim at Blake and his book, Ways of Grace, because the book, which was released in last June, purportedly portrayed Frascatore as a “racist goon.” He is now claiming emotional distress and slander.
In an interview with ABC News, Blake discussed the violent encounter.
“He never said ‘NYPD.’ He never said ‘officer,'” Blake said at a disciplinary trial for Officer James Frascatore. “He never said ‘freeze,’ like you’d see in the movies.”
When it was over, the officer offered a handshake, but didn’t apologize, Blake said. Blake said his first instinct was to “tough it out and walk it off,” but his wife changed his mind by asking what he’d do if the same thing happened to her.
“It shouldn’t happen to me. It shouldn’t happen to anyone,” Blake later testified. “There needs to be accountability for everybody.”
