We Matter

by Etan Thomas

  So particulars: one of the things we have been pushing with criminal justice reform are mandatory minimums. Guys are getting these long extended sentences for drug-related offenses and that is just unbelievable to me. You now have guys sitting in jail for drugs longer than guys who have murdered someone in cold blood. That’s absurd. And we’re talking about nonviolent drug offenses . . . small amounts of drugs.

  The way that has affected the African American community is just unreal. You have these guys locked up for decades, you have kids growing up in single-parent homes, you take the man out of the home, it’s a ripple-down effect. Another thing we are trying to get changed is . . . for-profit prisons. This only leads to quotas being met by police officers in an attempt to keep prisons at capacity. I mean, how ridiculous is that? And then there’s the recidivism. For guys who have been locked up, once they get out of prison, what do they have to fall back on? How do you reenter them into society?

  We are also fighting to reform juvenile justice and end police brutality and racial bias in police departments. But criminal justice reform you can hit from so many different angles, because so much is wrong with it. And it hurts my heart to see so many of us—meaning Black and Brown people—being affected by this unjust system. So if we don’t fight for it, who will?

  Interview with James Blake

  Enter James Blake. In August 2015, the former pro tennis player was standing in front of the Grand Hyatt in New York City, minding his own business, waiting for a car to pick him up and take him to the US Open tournament, when he was mistakenly tackled and handcuffed by plainclothes NYPD officer James Frascatore.

  I remember seeing this story on the news and thinking to myself how great it was that he was using the fact that he was an athlete, and had access to the media, to tell everyone exactly what had happened to him. In June 2017, he published the book Ways of Grace: Stories of Activism, Adversity, and How Sports Can Bring Us Together, and more than two years after suffering the police harassment, his ongoing court case against them remains a national news story. This all takes me back to my own incident with the police while I was in high school, so I appreciated the opportunity to speak with Blake.

  Etan: Take us back to what happened to you in New York.

  James Blake: I was standing there waiting for my car to take me to the Open and it was a little strange because I had just received an e-mail through my website from an old friend who I was actually on the wrestling team with in high school, and we had this great exchange . . . Then I saw this guy out of the corner of my eye, running toward me, and he kind of looked like the guy I went to school with. He had a similar build and similar-shaped head, so I was thinking, Wait a minute, is this him? So I was actually smiling as the person was running toward me, but I quickly realized this wasn’t someone who was coming for a friendly encounter or a high school buddies’ reunion. I remember seeing the guy running toward me split the two doormen and I thought that was kind of weird. Why wouldn’t he just go around them if he was joking around? It seemed kind of rude to just run right through them, and then of course five seconds later he picks me up and slams me to the ground. I had no idea what was going on, and I am so thankful now I get choked up sometimes just talking about it, because the whole thing could’ve been so much worse.

  I didn’t fight back or anything. I was so startled I didn’t do anything. And he never identified himself as an officer or said “NYPD” or anything, but of course once he pulled out the handcuffs, I put two and two together . . . He screamed, “Keep your mouth shut!” and that was it.

  I said, “I am complying with whatever you say 100 percent.”

  So he picked me up, put me in cuffs, and walked me ten or fifteen yards down the street, and I remember being completely baffled . . . I remember trying to communicate the fact that they definitely had the wrong person, and I said, “I don’t know who you are looking for or what you are looking for, but it definitely doesn’t have anything to do with me. If you want to tell me what you’re looking for, I’ll dispel it very quickly.” They asked for my ID, and I told them where it was, and I told them, “The other thing you might want is my US Open credentials in my back pocket, because that’s where I was going, so you can check that out if you want to find out what I am doing here in New York.”

  Now, the cop that did this to me just kept saying, “Okay, we’ll see, we’ll see,” very dismissive. Then one of the cops asked me if I was working at the US Open and I said no, I was actually a player and I was going for an event there. They never took my badge or looked at it in any way, but they eventually told me that they had information that someone had been delivering things to me for the last two weeks or the last three weeks, and I said, “Well, let’s go up to my hotel right now and I can show you my plane ticket, because I just got in this morning on the red-eye.”

  They kept just being dismissive and repeating, “We’ll see, we’ll see.” So the fifth officer on the scene, which I believe was the highest-ranking officer, he started actually talking to me like a normal human being and . . . actually appeared at least to be listening to what I was saying. He kept looking at his phone, then looking at me, and I don’t know if he was looking at Google Images or if someone had sent him a picture of who they were looking for or something to do with my ID, but he kept looking a little confused like he was thinking that something was not right here. He was the only one who actually apologized. None of the other ones did . . .

  And I realized how incredibly shaken I was, because I didn’t even think to get anyone’s badge number or anyone’s name or anything like that. I was just lucky that I had the resources I had to get a lawyer and have someone look into it, and I was unbelievably lucky that there was video of it, because if there wasn’t it would’ve been my word against theirs and five cops would’ve said the exact same thing, that nothing happened, because before they knew there was a video, they put out a statement saying they were looking into the matter, and it only lasted less than a minute and they were not even sure if I was actually in handcuffs.

  Etan: So they weren’t taking any responsibility for what happened?

  Blake: No, so I was really lucky that there was a video, and we found that out after I decided to go to the press. The interesting thing about that is the only reason I even decided to go to the press is after I spoke to my wife, she said, “What if that had happened to me?” You go through, you’re a big boy, an athlete, you can handle it, take everything on your shoulders, but when she said that, I realized that I wasn’t just doing this for me. So when I went to the press, I found out also that they had never filed a report. There was never going to be any trail or any record or any type of report that they just tackled someone at noon in the middle of Manhattan, so I was happy that there was an actual video because I know without a doubt that if there was no video, all of the policemen would’ve stuck to the same story that nothing happened and moved on, and that would’ve been it. I probably would’ve gotten a little bit of newspaper coverage because of who I am and because it was during the US Open, but other than that, absolutely nothing would’ve been accomplished.

  And what’s interesting is even before the video, I told my friends what happened and some people close to me, and their reactions were, “Oh man, that’s terrible,” but not really fully understanding. But then after the video came out, they said, “Oh my God, we had no idea how brutal that was or how serious you were about that.” I remember saying to a few different people, “You’re friends with me, I don’t exaggerate, I told you what happened, but it still took the video for you to believe that something like that happened the way I said it happened.” So I can imagine how the general public after first hearing about it and before the video was released probably thought . . . there is something else to the story because why would the police just tackle someone for no reason? . . . Like I said, I was really fortunate that there was a video because I don’t know what the outcome of all of this would’ve been if there wasn’t one.

 
Etan: So Officer James Frascatore of the NYPD didn’t identify himself as a policeman?

  Blake: No, he never said anything, which I am sure is a breach of protocol, and I think that’s really one of the reasons why there can be so many miscommunications, if cops don’t have accountability and are allowed to go unpunished when they clearly handle situations completely the wrong way. I think about this often, I think about how lucky I am that I’m not the type of person that gets freaked out by a situation like that. There have been plenty of times where a fan has run up to me and inappropriately given me a hug or . . . some type of overzealous fan appreciation, so I wasn’t freaked out or anything. I honestly just stood there and smiled. I think most people’s reaction when someone is running up to you is that you’re going to put your hands up, you’re going to defend yourself, you’re going to try to run or something—that’s just a regular instinctual reaction—and in talking to a lot of police officers who in my opinion do things the right way, they all agree that if I had done any of those things, it would’ve been a whole different story.

  The injuries I did get would’ve paled in comparison. I have nightmares about what could have happened and I don’t even have to say them, you know what could’ve happened. I think about how poorly he did his job, and there is just no accountability . . . You have to identify yourself as a police officer, and he never said it at the beginning. The only time he let me know that he was a cop was after he had handcuffed me . . . and he could see that I was visibly shaken, and he said, “You know you’re safe with us, right?”

  I looked at him and said, “No, I don’t.”

  And he said, “Well, you are.”

  And you think that made me feel better? After he had just tackled me to the ground? I didn’t feel safe at all. Like I said, after he pulled out the handcuffs, that was the only time I realized that he was a cop. After I saw the second or third cop come up after I was already handcuffed, I could see their badges on their belt buckles. But the officer who tackled me didn’t have any badge, or I didn’t see any badge. He was just this man who tackled me for no reason.

  Etan: He did everything wrong, while you had to do everything perfectly right or your life would’ve been in jeopardy. That’s just not a fair dynamic.

  Blake: That’s why I always say there needs to be some type of accountability in these situations. If I’m a cop that is doing my job the right way, I’m not afraid of accountability . . . Same as a doctor or fireman or any other profession. If you are doing your job the right way and you make a mistake, that’s one thing. If you do your job in a completely negligent manner, well, that’s what malpractice suits are about, and there should be that same accountability for a cop who is holding life-or-death situations in their hands. They need to be trained well enough to do what they’re doing; they need to be able to handle those situations, and if they can’t, there are plenty of other jobs out there that don’t require life-or-death decisions to be made. So I definitely agree with you: it’s more than a little unfair that the onus is on me or on the citizen in general, and that’s why it’s so frustrating to not have the accountability.

  Etan: The officer who tackled you, James Frascatore, is the defendant in at least four earlier lawsuits alleging excessive use of force. These are repeated allegations, but it doesn’t appear that the NYPD is doing anything to correct it. Am I wrong?

  Blake: The more I find out about his history, the more frustrating this entire situation becomes, because it didn’t just happen to me. I want him fired. The fact is that he has these previous offenses, but when I talked to the people who are there to prosecute him, the civilian complaint review board, they said none of those cases have been closed really. There is one that they paid out like $40,000 from the city, but he faced no consequences even monetarily, because that was paid out from the city and the others are still open and pending. I can’t go into the court and present these priors as evidence just like they do with criminals when they have a long list of priors and their punishment is typically greater, but I can’t use his priors because they are just delaying it and delaying it and delaying it, just like they are with mine, which happened in September of 2015, but he hasn’t seen . . . any form of repercussions . . . He continues working and getting a paycheck since that day and will continue to get a paycheck. This is not going to make him hesitant to do this again.

  There is no deterrent. They are showing him that he can do this and he’s going to get desk duty for a while and still make just as much or more money than he was before, and then be right back on the street like it never happened . . . The past precedent for a case like this is losing a few vacation days, and that’s it, because it was set when it was just the police officers trying the other police officers. So it was their decision and their rules and they were obviously very lenient. Now, when you have this complaint review board, they have to keep going on that past precedent. So when I asked for termination, they said that would make us look foolish, because it would make us look like we are favoring you just because of who you are . . . And I told them that we need to change that precedent because these things are reoccurring and there have been multiple offenses and mine was actually caught on tape. Losing ten vacation days is just a ridiculous punishment.

  Etan: Isn’t that interesting that they said they can’t ask for termination because it would look like they were giving preferential treatment, when this case would not have been in the news or brought to the public if you weren’t who you are?

  Blake: Right, which is what I said. I understand there have been cases that have been more severe, with worse injuries and more gruesome than mine, and those are just two of the pending cases on him. There are actually others, and add to that history and those precedents my case, which is actually on tape, which could be the tipping point and a lightning rod because that video is out there. That video has been on YouTube, it’s been on CNN, it’s been on Good Morning America, The Today Show, so people have seen it and people have seen how egregious this mistake was, and yes, the fact that I am who I am definitely made that possible. That’s why this can help so many others who don’t have that kind of access and that media availability. They can get something out of this by showing the public their dedication to getting one of the bad officers off of the street and showing the world that they are dedicated to running a clean department, etc.

  You have so many officers who are doing it the right way, and guys like this have to know that they can’t get away with these kinds of things. He has had more complaints than 90 percent of the police force have had in their entire career. In a twenty-five-year career, I believe the stats are that most police officers have less than four complaints and he has had five in like seven months. So why would you keep someone with that record on the force, and what message does that send to the world about the integrity of the police department as a whole?

  Etan: So you’re not going to drop this is what I’m hearing, and you’re going to continue to push for termination instead of the regular protocol of losing vacation days.

  Blake: Yes, I’m approaching this in a two-pronged way: in speaking with the city, and the city in my opinion is doing the right thing; in the meetings, they have been repeating that they want to do the right thing, they want to help, and they want to promote things together. They have expressed that they want a positive to come out of this situation and they are going to start a fellowship. This is going to happen soon—it hasn’t yet, but they have ensured me that it will happen soon. They are going to fund a two-year fellowship so if someone comes straight out of law school, they will be instructed to handle cases like mine, where there aren’t any major injuries but there is a civilian complaint.

  This is good because these complaints, as I said before, are often not taken to completion, because they are usually dragged out and the people just drop it. I think around 45 percent of these cases don’t even go to completion. So there will be someone specifically staffed to focus on these kinds of cases, and it will be
on the city’s dime. They’re going to implement that and continue it for six years . . . and then review its effectiveness after the six years, so I am excited about that. The other part of that is the accountability for the officer, through the civilian complaint review board. And that has been so frustrating because it’s not even a trial for criminal punishment or anything like that. It’s just internally, for him to keep his job basically. So it was supposed to be in November initially. They adjourned it, they said it was going to be in January. I was just in New York to deal with that, it was supposed to be January 9; they adjourned it again without even telling us . . . He has to testify in some other case and they said he would have a tough time being truthful in this case because of the other case . . .

  Sounds like a pretty lame excuse, to be honest. They told me they were just asking for fifteen vacation days and . . . that they feel that that’s a win. I told them absolutely not. I want to go to court, and we have an actual trial, and if he gets off then, I’m going to publicize it as much as possible that this is what happened, because he should be held accountable to go through the process of at least resembling some form of justice. I will definitely publicize this as much as I possibly can and utilize every last one of my resources to do so.

  Etan: That’s why it’s important for somebody in your position to speak out. They implemented an entire new program based on your case being brought to the public and you not simply being silent about what happened to you.