| Officer: | Zwilling, Charles |
|---|---|
| Complainant: | Male, 41 |
| Allegation: | Force: Physical force |
| CCRB Conclusion: | Exonerated |
| Officer | Complainant | Allegation | CCRB Conclusion |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zwilling, Charles | Male, 41 | Force: Physical force | Exonerated |
Further details on conclusions.
He said that on May 1, 2007 at 7:30 PM he attended a book reading at the Barnes & Noble bookstore located on East 86th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues in Manhattan. The author, [redacted] was reading from her novel about her mother's experience during the Armenian genocide. [redacted] who is Turkish, disagreed with her portrayal of the Turkish/Armenian conflict and went to the event with the intention of asking questions and providing an alternative viewpoint to the author and the other audience members. Several other Turkish people were in the audience, most of them known (by face) to [redacted] and one of them had flyers with information about the subject that he began to pass out when [redacted] opened the floor for questions from the audience.
The situation escalated because the author refused to take questions from the group of "Turks" and the woman who appeared to be coordinating the event called a manager and the NYPD paid security detail identified by the SPRINT as PO Carlos Romero - to eject the group of "Turks" from the book reading. The group of Turkish individuals became agitated and several of them stood up to voice their protest. [redacted] said, "This is not fair." Another individual said, "They should be allowed to ask their questions." A Barnes & Noble employee attempted to collect the flyers already distributed. [redacted] continued to protest and shortly thereafter three or four officers in uniform (one of them was wearing biking shorts) arrived to back up PO Romero. They instructed various members of the group of Turkish individuals to leave (they were easily identified because they were all sitting together), as well as those who had flyers and would not return them to the woman attempting to collect them. The people whom they directed to leave complied without incident. [redacted] began to walk out of the row of seats and to exit the building, explaining in his interview, "I'm not going to argue with them." As he walked out, an unknown woman began to take his picture. He said to...
Read report for details.