“They didn’t have to pull that force on her—men and one female beating her down like that. I don’t think it takes so much to arrest a person. No I don’t think so. That’s police brutality. They should not have done that.â€?
Out Of Control: NYPD Wilding
By Donald Winkfield
ON THE SPOT
Tiffany McMillan, 23, of Queens Village, New York, tells The Black Star News she was assaulted by four members of the New York Police Department (NYPD) on Sunday, March 11th, at the apartment she shares with her grandmother and aunt.
“It was about 10:30 P.M., we had already gone to bed when someone began banging on the door. I went to the door and asked ‘Who is it?’ ‘It’s the police, open the door.’ I did not call the police and they demanded that I open the door. They asked, ‘are you Tiffany McMillan?’ I asked ‘do you have a warrant?’ because they were not telling me why they were here.” She says there were four white NYPD officers from the 104th precinct.
One of the officers, apparently upset with McMillan’s line of questioning, placed his foot in the door to prevent it from being closed. “My grandmother was at the door and my three year old daughter was there too. When I told them who I was, they pulled me from behind my door into the hallway and began punching me in the face,” says McMillan. There was no way she could fight off four large white police officers with guns, she says.
At this point, more officers had arrived. “I don’t know why they beat that child like that,”
Velia Morris, McMillan’s grandmother, who is in her 80’s, says. “When I tried to get out into the hallway to see what they were doing a white female cop pushed me against the wall holding a stick across my chest.”
What brought the police to McMillan’s door was an earlier dispute she had with her mother, Angela Uvino, 43, who lives on a lower floor in the same building. “I called the police because my daughter hit me and her eight year old sister,” Uvino
says, of McMillan. “I wanted to teach her a lesson.”
Little did she know—a lesson NYPD style.
“They didn’t have to pull that force on her—men and one female beating her down like that. I don’t think it takes so much to arrest a person. No I don’t think so. That’s police brutality. They should not have done that,” Uvino adds referring to the police officers who put the savage beating on McMillan.
What will it take to stop the systemic police brutality, false arrest of lawful Citizens and the misuse of deadly physical force by some police? Clearly there are a number of things every Black person needs to start doing:
Become armed with pens and paper, still cameras and cam recording devices to document police atrocities: Report what you witness, not only to police department commanders but also to Black organizations and Black media such as The Black Star News, (212) 481-7745, or [email protected], and 100 Black In Law Enforcement Who Care.
The Police Department didn’t respond to my call seeking comment by publication time.
Columnist’s note: If you tuned in to Black talk radio WLIB 1190 AM with Imhotep Gary Byrd’s, “Mind flight,” which once aired Monday thru Thursday mornings from 12:00 A.M. to 5:00 A.M., and are like most of us – ‘tired of being dumbed-down because of a lack of news and information in your community and around the city.’ Tell WLIB management, “I want to listen to the old Black talk radio program listed above. One day is a disservice to our communities,” contact: Deon Levingston, Vice President and General Manager, WLIB Radio, 3 Park Avenue, New York New York 10016; telephone – 212-592-0426. Send me your response and any reply and I will print it in this column. Let’s stay informed.
Watch Manhattan cable channel 34 or www.mnn.org channel 34 every Sunday at 7:30 P.M. for news updates and other articles. You have any comments contact Winkfield for his consideration regarding covering your own story. Email: [email protected] or [email protected]; call (212) 481-7745. Write to: On The Spot, Post Office Box 230149, Queens County 11423. Together we can get the justice everyone just talks about.
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