Off-Duty NYPD Officer Beaten by Police in His Home Awarded $15M by the City

[Dominus Atheos]

https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/201602 ... =hootsuite

QUEENS — An off-duty NYPD officer who was falsely arrested and beaten by fellow officers inside his own home was awarded $15 million by a federal jury on Wednesday.

Officer Larry Jackson, who is black, was beaten with batons, choked, kicked, sprayed in the face with pepper spray and had his hand fractured during the 2010 attack, according to his lawyer, who blames race biases on escalating the incident.

The confrontation began after Jackson’s wife called 911 to resolve a dispute outside their home, where they had just held their daughter’s birthday party.

When police arrived, they mistook Jackson for one of the agitators and began to physically subdue him, ignoring his repeated attempts to identify himself as a member of the NYPD, according to the lawsuit.

“Dude, it is my house and I am a police officer too,” Jackson told the arresting officers, according to the complaint. Jackson was then handcuffed and taken to the 113th Precinct stationhouse even after officers found his NYPD shield, which had been in his front pocket the whole time, the lawsuit says.

“He’ll never be compensated for the disrespect he’s received from the police department,” says Jackson’s attorney, Eric Sanders.

The Brooklyn Federal Court jury found Jackson entitled to punitive damages from 12 individual officers totaling $2.6 million, in addition to $12.5 million in damages.

The Queens District Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute the arresting officers following an investigation, the New York Post reported.

Jackson's hand is still recovering from the attack and he can't hold a gun and may have to retire, according to the lawsuit.

The city's Law Department called the verdict "excessive," and said it may still be overturned, according to the Post.

“Nothing is final. Indeed, the judge’s post trial review could lead to the verdict being set aside or a new trial,” the city Law Department said in a statement to the Post.

All $15m will presumably come from NYC's insurance, and since this is such a common occurrence probably won't even raise the cities rates, so this will have zero effect on anything.

[Napoleon the Clown]

The sum is likely to be reduced on appeal. As I understand, when you get such substantial awards they almost always get appealed and brought to a much lower figure.

[Sidewinder]

Hopefully, the sum will NOT be reduced on appeal. The NYPD needs to punish these fucktards- if only to prevent such blue-on-blue attacks, which will absolutely DEVASTATE the police officers' morale and ability to work with one another.

[Zeropoint]

I think he should get exactly as much as all the OTHER, non-cop, black people that NYPD has beaten up recently.

[Broomstick]

Hopefully, the sum will NOT be reduced on appeal. The NYPD needs to punish these fucktards- if only to prevent such blue-on-blue attacks, which will absolutely DEVASTATE the police officers' morale and ability to work with one another.

I doubt very much from perspective of the attackers it was "blue-on-blue", it was more likely "blue-on-black" if they didn't believe he was a police officer.

[Simon_Jester]

Thing is, New York has a LOT of black police officers on the force. They have to be wondering, "am I next?"