"MAYBE I'M NAÏVE, BUT I JUST ASSUMED IT WAS SOMEONE I WENT TO HIGH SCHOOL WITH OR SOMETHING WHO WAS RUNNING AT ME TO GIVE ME A BIG HUG, SO I SMILED AT THE GUY," BLAKE SAID. BLAKE SAID THE OFFICER, WHO HE SAID WAS NOT WEARING A BADGE, PICKED HIM UP AND THREW HIM DOWN ON THE SIDEWALK, YELLED AT HIM TO ROLL OVER ON HIS FACE AND SAID, "DON'T SAY A WORD." BLAKE SAID HE RESPONDED, "I'M GOING TO DO WHATEVER YOU SAY. I'M GOING TO COOPERATE. BUT DO YOU MIND IF I ASK WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT?"
AN OFFICER SAID, "WE'LL TELL YOU. YOU ARE IN SAFE HANDS." SAID BLAKE, "I DIDN'T FEEL VERY SAFE."
Sure, there's a resemblance between the two men, but it turns out neither of them have anything to do with a crime—the company provided the photo, which they found online, to police, thinking the man had used stolen credit cards. They were wrong. In any event, the circumstances—the non-violent crime, the very casually stanced Blake—didn't warrant the police officer's aggressive actions.Blake's statement is below.The man on the right is who NYPD cops thought tennis star James Blake was when he got tackled. http://t.co/mvrYIc0LiS pic.twitter.com/4WADzST9W4
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) September 10, 2015
Throw this on top of the infinite pile of stories about people of color getting wrongfully arrested under brutal circumstances. Just in this instance, there's a topical tennis twist.#JamesBlake statement on incident with NYPD: 'I know that what happened to me is not uncommon.' pic.twitter.com/o8lWfyKcba
— Dan Linden (@DanLinden) September 11, 2015