As New York City Councilman Jumaane Williams and Kirsten Foy, aide to public advocate Bill de Blasio, tried to make their way to the Brooklyn Museum for a political luncheon following the West Indian Day Parade, they came face to face with an immutable truth: they may be important political figures in the city, but they’re still black.

From the New York Times :

But as the two men continued walking down the sidewalk, they found themselves surrounded by uniformed police officers stationed farther along.

“Jumaane was wearing a council member’s pin, they were trying to explain who they were, but the officers weren’t listening,” Mr. de Blasio said in an interview.

Mr. de Blasio said that Mr. Williams began to argue with the officers and that at some point he and Mr. Foy were both thrown to the ground and handcuffed. They were taken to the Union Temple, a synagogue on Eastern Parkway, where Mr. de Blasio said he went after getting the call. There, Mr. de Blasio said, he spoke to a police commander, who released Mr. Williams and Mr. Foy after about 30 minutes without filing charges.

It’s always good to have the public advocate, who happens not to be black, around to straighten out these sort of things, especially when it serves to remind him that life in the Big Apple can be difficult at times:

“It’s broad daylight, they get thrown to the ground, they both get arrested,” Mr. de Blasio said. “If that’s what happens to an elected official and a senior appointee, imagine what happens to a general member of the public.”

No need to imagine, Bill.  Read the papers. Check out the  stop  and  frisk stats. How does one hold an elected position in the City of New York and find what happened to Williams and Foy an epiphany?  Still, better to learn because it happened to someone near and dear than to never learn at all.

What’s fascinating isn’t about the treatment handed Williams and Foy at the hands of a street cop, since that happens every hour or every day.  No, what’s fascinating is how the post-release spin comes out, seeking to lay blame while not offending the powerful.



It’s so very hard to stand out as a representative of the downtrodden, those who are routinely treated like garbage on the streets while not angering the boss-man.  To watch Williams tap dance around Ray Kelly and his responsibility as the Chief of Police is a thing of beauty, worthy of any good politician regardless of party or color.

Had this not involved Jumaane Williams and Kirsten Foy, there isn’t a chance in the world that anybody would have heard of this incident, outside a small circle of friends and a criminal court judge, where they would have been arraigned on disorderly conduct charges and likely an assault on some cop’s fist with their face.  It presents an opportunity to make a point about the presumption of Being Black.

And yet they’ve managed to sufficiently water down their outrage so no important person, no person they might actually have to deal with in the future, gets any dirt on their hands.  There’s a “disconnect” between the wonderful Ray Kelly and the terrible line officers who allow this culture of racial abuse to exist?  Is Kelly unaware of his department’s stop and frisk of any black or Hispanic without cause? 

A spokesman for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Stu Loeser, said that the mayor spoke with Mr. Williams after the episode and that a deputy mayor spoke with Mr. de Blasio. “As the Police Department has indicated, they are investigating this incident and will take all appropriate steps once it is concluded,” Mr. Loeser said.

The police department is investigating, which means that this will never be spoken of again.  Williams and Foy will go back to work on the City’s dime and sit in clean offices, where they will be treated with the dignity they believe they deserve, and bask in the warmth of being safe from the reality of life on the streets of New York City as black men.  After all, they are important government officials, and are entitled to the protections afforded by their positions.

Maybe the cops picked on the right black men after all.