A man who sued the city after he dared to dance behind some unsuspecting cops outside Grand Central, and wound up thrown to the ground by those officers, has been awarded $33K by a Manhattan judge.
Alexandre Nzebele (a.k.a. Alexander Bok) recorded himself dancing near six police officers outside Grand Central Station on Christmas Eve 2014 as part of the Ellen Degeneres-inspired "Dance Dare." You can see what transpired in the video below.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” they're heard saying in the video. “What are you dancing in the street for? Are you a fucking asshole?” they asked. Nzebele tried to explain that he wasn't a "fucking asshole," but rather he was just participating in Degeneres's #DanceDare challenge (which urges participants to "sneak up behind perfect strangers, to dance behind them without them knowing it").
Unfortunately, the officers weren't interested in any such answers, and instead shoved and frisked him, tossing him to the street at one point.
"In my mind I was just doing the 'Ellen dance," Nzebele had told the Daily News of the incident. "I never expected to go that way."
Nzebele had initially sued for $5 million, but his lawyer said they were happy with the results nonetheless: "This case was actually a positive development—it vindicates the rights of citizens to be treated fairly with respect by police officers," attorney Robert Tolchin told the Post. "This wasn’t a case of a criminal or someone doing a bad act—this was just somebody who was having a little fun on Christmas Eve, for god’s sake."
