Officers from the NYPD's 77th Precinct in Brooklyn are being investigated after a local man—who was already in a dispute with the police—accused officers of illegally entering and searched his apartment. And yes, there is videotape.
The story starts back in January when a gay-pride party at 32-year-old Jabbar Campbell's Sterling Place apartment was shut down by the police, and then some. Campbell claims that after cops showed up and told his party to hush, another group of cops showed up and kicked and punched him in his vestibule while using gay slurs—after tampering with a security camera.
The second incident occurred last Friday when three men wearing NYPD jackets pushed their way into Campbell's building and apartment. As Colin Moynihan at the Times reports:
Dante Singleton, who shares the second-floor apartment with Mr. Campbell, said the officers entered by pushing open an unlocked door. He said that he asked the officers if they had a search warrant, and that they said they did not. They explained that they were responding to previous noise complaints, Mr. Singleton added.
"They said they had just so happened to be in the neighborhood and they decided to check it out, and that’s pretty much verbatim,” Mr. Singleton said.
Mr. Singleton said the officers told everyone in the eight-room railroad apartment to gather in one area, then asked for identification and wrote down the names of those present. The officers used flashlights as they roamed though the apartment, he said, looking under tables and behind computer equipment — some of which can be seen on the video.
The NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau is now investigating the matter—which isn't much consolation to Campbell, who now fears that "these guys are out to get me." Meanwhile, Campbell is still facing charges of attempted assault, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and possessing marijuana from his January arrest. Ecstasy charges were dropped after the pills police found on him failed lab tests.
