NYPD Brass Launch Investigation Into Tense Standoff in which White Cop Pressed Black Detectives for IDs

New York's Finest is in the news again and this time it's for infighting. The NYPD is investigating a confrontation between white uniformed cops and  black hate-crime detectives who claim they were racially profiled. According to the NY Daily News, a detective and a sergeant had to be physically restrained during the tense, profanity-laced standoff, which has caused a debate among police brass about who was out of line. The uniformed officer reportedly demanded identification from the detectives,  who were following up on a possible bias crime. It is a real shame that these detectives were subjected to the very same behavior they were investigating. For all those people who think that white cops do not give black males a second look when they are patrolling are deluded into thinking that racial profiling isn't an issue.

The detectives were investigating an incident in which a black woman's car windows were shot out in the predominantly white neighborhood of Gravesend, Brooklyn. Hate crime task force members Stephon Garland and Gregory Wilson, who are black, and Faisal Khan, who is Pakistani, were wearing suits for the door-to-door canvass.

About 15 members of the Shomrim Jewish Community patrol arrived, and someone dialed 911, alleging the detectives were police impersonators, according to a report reviewed by The News. The detectives identified themselves over the air to the radio dispatcher, but the situation escalated when uniformed cops from the 61st Precinct responded and demanded their ID cards. Khan told Officer Craig Malamed, who is white, that he and his partners were from the task force and what they were doing.

After Khan and Wilson showed the cop their IDs, Malamed complained to his sergeant that Garland was sitting in the SUV and had not displayed identification. Garland, the report states, called the cop a "f-----g d--k."  Community-based Jewish patrols like Shomrim and Shmira have been criticized for inflaming racial tensions and allegedly taking the law into their own hands. The son of a black cop was allegedly beaten by a Shmira member last April in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Source: NY Daily News

We will see what the investigation reveals and if these detectives were given a hard time because of the color of their skin. All too often many people just shrug their shoulders when a black man complains that he was roughed up or pulled over by a police officer for no other reason than because of the color of his skin. This is a real problem and it is a shame that it can also happen to black police officers too.