Complaint #201605457,
June 21, 2016

Summary

On June 21, 2016, at approximately 10:50 p.m. five members of a Cop Watch group, [redacted] and [redacted] were walking east on the south side of West 42nd Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in Manhattan. They encountered PO Michael Ashford of Patrol Borough Manhattan South. They saw him on his smartphone, and tried to convince him to stop using his cellphone, since they believed that it was against proper Patrol Guide procedure. When PO Ashford refused to do so, [redacted] said to the rest of the group, "Let's leave this piece of shit alone," and began to walk away, along with the rest of the group. PO Ashford then walked after [redacted] and requested his identification (Allegation A). When [redacted] refused to provide his identification, PO Ashford handcuffed him, and called his supervisor, Sgt. Tarakur Chowdhury of Patrol Borough Manhattan South. Sgt. Chowdhury arrived with PO Mathimohan Mohandas and PO David Lachmenar, both of Patrol Borough Manhattan South. PO Ashford placed [redacted] in the patrol van that arrived on scene, and Sgt. Chowdhury ordered that [redacted] be detained. Both [redacted] and [redacted] were transported to the Midtown South Precinct and issued summonses for disorderly conduct (Allegation B and C). [redacted]s summons was issued for his use of profanity, and [redacted]s was issued for blocking pedestrian traffic (Board Review 1 and 2). No civilian was charged or injured as a result of this incident.
[redacted] provided two videos of the incident. A portion of one of the videos appears below. The full videos appear in IA #24 and IA #25 (Board Reviews 3 and 4). The full transcription of these videos appears in IA #28 (Board Review 5). Read report for details.