Behind The Holding Room Door

Javier Montoya, angered by what he perceived as injustice in the arrest of another individual, caused a scene in the NYPD precinct. He put his fingers down his throat in what he says was a gesture to his friend, an expression of how sick he was of the corruption in the city; the officer behind the desk interpreted it as an attempt to vomit on him and responded by knocking him unconscious before arresting him for disorderly conduct.

You can make your own conclusions about this use of force and subsequent arrest, but the second half of Montoya's account is more troubling.

Upon request, the NYPD provided Wide Angle with security footage of the precinct's holding room, where Montoya and other detainees were placed after their arrests. Montoya is handcuffed when Sergeant Law beats him until he's unconscious. He's not the only one: over the course of the footage, Law enters cell after cell and beats several other handcuffed detainees.

Chief Jace Parker was present for at least some of the incidents. Just days ago, Parker stood outside Manhattan Hospital and told New Yorkers that if they witnessed a crime, they should not "simply stand there a bystander."

When asked about what happened inside the precinct, Parker did not deny his presence, but said the first incident he witnessed "caught him off guard", and that he was "more annoyed than anything, knowing what outcome was going to happen". Annoyed at the outcome, not the beating. He pulled Law aside and told him to stop. Parker says he knows of no further incidents after that warning, though he added additional reports "would not surprise" him.

Law has since been ex-communicated from the NYPD. That's the department's word, and it is doing a lot of work. Parker remarks that the NYPD "hopes he has better luck at his next line of work."

Parker also said that citizens who have been harmed have settled with him out of court, paid for their time and injuries. He offers this as accountability but I don't see it that way. No lawsuit, no filing, no public record; the matter was settled privately. Compensation may make a victim whole, but it does much less to tell the public what went wrong.

I must commend Chief Jace Parker, Deputy Chief Miller and the NYPD as a whole for their transparency and help throughout this investigation. They told the truth about what happened, provided the security footage upon my request, and took action against the officer in question. But I cannot help but feel that the department is more concerned with protecting its own image than with protecting the citizens of New York.