Queens Drug Bust Sparks Protest of 'Police Brutality'

Residents claim pattern of harassment by NYPD
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 6, 2013 5:06 PM CDT
Queens Drug Bust Sparks Protest of 'Police Brutality'
Police in riot gear stand guard outside the 103rd Precinct in the neighborhood of Jamaica in 2008.   (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)

Brooklyn isn't the only New York borough facing police brutality protests: About 50 residents of Jamaica, Queens, engaged in a three-hour standoff with police in riot gear last night after a violent drug bust outside a local housing project, the Daily News reports. Police say they saw Corey Crichlow, 33, with drugs and tried to arrest him, but his brother Raynard Fields, 27, stepped in and a fight broke out. Some residents, however, say cops were already beating up Crichlow when Fields tried to intervene, and they beat him up too.

"Some officers don’t have the respect to serve," said the arrested men's uncle. "Kids got mad and the community got mad." The residents marched down to the nearby precinct to protest what they say is a pattern of NYPD brutality against young black men in the neighborhood. Police stood guard with riot masks and batons. The protest was not violent, but witnesses say residents knocked down garbage cans as they ran through the streets. Chrichlow and Fields were taken to a hospital and haven't been charged. At least one police officer was hurt and admitted to a hospital. (More police brutality stories.)

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