Witnesses making shit up? or cops protecting their own? - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Cynthetiq · 07-10-2009, 12:22 PM

Quote:

View: Arrested Pug Owner Fired Over Anti-Semitic Allegation
Source: Gothamist
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Arrested Pug Owner Fired Over Anti-Semitic Allegation
Arrested Pug Owner Fired Over Anti-Semitic Allegation

Chrissie Brodigan
A Greenpoint woman's altercation with a police officer over carrying her sick dog through the subway has put her out of a job. To recap: Chrissie Brodigan, a VP for Online Media at Plum TV, says that after she argued with Officer Joel Witriol while trying to carry her pug out of the subway, he arrested her, grabbed her breasts, and punched her in the back while saying, "If you're going to act like a woman I'm going to treat you like a woman." Other witnesses corroborated Brodigan's account, but one witness and an unidentified source told the Post that Brodigan yelled at Witriol, the city's first Hasidic officer, "You f---ing Jew, you're not even human. Jewish people think they own everything."
Brodigan initially said that although she yelled at Witriol, she "did not recall" saying anything anti-Semitic. (The following day she e-mailed us to firmly deny saying anything anti-Semitic or about Witriol's Jewish identity. Other witnesses backed her up.) But it seems that her initial Reaganesque denial is what cost her her job; she tells us today:

I was terminated for "equivocating" in the press. My boss [Chris Glowacki] is threatening to not offer an agreeable severance package, including health insurance, which is crucial because i have cystic fibrosis and he is aware. He's angry that this is out in the press. I think he made a judgment based on perceived bigotry.

UPDATE: A publicist for Plum TV writes: "Chrissie Brodigan is no longer employed by Plum. Her employment was terminated for valid reasons, unrelated to the determination of whether or not she made the objectionable statements as alleged in the press. We will have no further comment." Post reporter Reuven Blau has not responded to our inquires about the article; according to his Post colleague Reuven Fenton, Blau is the one who "found" the mysterious witness Viane Delgado in the narrow window of time between when we broke the full story and when the Post print edition went to bed.
No other media outlet has quoted Viane Delgado, and we're still trying to obtain a copy of the police report to see if Delgado was quoted there. (Though an NYPD spokesman's comment that the anti-Semitic charge "sounds like something you're reading in other papers" leads us to suspect there is nothing about that in the police report.) Of course, Blau is under no obligation to elaborate on his witness or "source" or even return our phone calls, but a source tells us the Post is full of shit. (Our source also tells us that dogs bite men.) Below, Chrissie's long open letter to the media about her termination.

An Open Letter: How I Got Slandered By the New York Post & NYPD
"On Monday, June 30, I was wrongfully arrested and physically abused by the NYPD. The arresting officer who manhandled happens to have been the first Hasidic cop on a force of more than 30,000.
In the days that followed the incident, which became well-publicized, because bystanders photographed the arrest and called the "police" on account of the improper behavior of the arresting officer, and because I had the courage to defend my rights and resisted abuse with the support of these witnesses, the situation has become an unimaginable nightmare for me.
I have been falsely accused of being a bigot by the New York Post in an act of the most irresponsible journalism I have ever experienced, and now I have been fired from a job I loved and was great at on account of these vicious accusations and my alleged failure to respond "vigorously enough" to them.
Here is what happened:
Two days after my arrest the New York Post came out with a vicious article in which anti-Semitic remarks were attributed to me by an alleged witness.
Either the Post fabricated the existence of this witness, who despite an exerted effort by both journalists at Gothamist and myself has never been located, or they fabricated her remarks.
There were witnesses at the scene and these witnesses did not hear me make any anti-Semitic remarks and specifically did not recall the existence of the Post's alleged witness. I do not believe that this witness was at the scene nor did any witness hear me make antisemitic remarks.
The truth is that smearing the victim is a classic police technique to cover up abuse and protect the arresting officer.
I am not a bigot, and accusations of bigotry are so absurd that I did not think it even necessary to respond to them.
My "suspension" and now my firing requires that I make things clear to the public.
During the course of my arrest, I did not:

Utter the words "Jewish" or "Jew."
I did not say, "You Jews think you own the world."
I did not use the phrase "You fucking Jews . . . "
I did not say anything that any person, reasonable or not, could have interpreted to mean any reference whatsoever to the obvious religion of the cop who was manhandling me.

These anti-Semitic comments printed by the New York Post never crossed my lips on the day I was wrongfully arrested and physically abused. And, to be even more succinct, those words and statements have NEVER crossed my lips on any other day in my life. EVER.
I believe that ultimately the evidence will come out that the police were involved in the Post's smear job of me, which was an effort to cover up police misconduct.
Under these circumstances it is important that you know who I am:
My academic background at George Mason University involved an undergraduate degree in English with a minor in African American studies that culminated in an honors thesis about the civil rights movement. My graduate studies and masters degrees, I focused my coursework on the history of immigrants, gay, lesbian, black, hispanic, disabled and other oppressed people. My masters thesis and subsequent doctoral dissertation focused on gender discrimination and women's rights in the workplace. Indeed, I note that my principal doctoral advisors were all Jewish.
I have devoted my adult life to studying and supporting the civil rights of minorities.
To smear me as an anti-Semite is both cowardly and a disgrace and victimizes me once again. I expected more from a community to whom I have devoted my best efforts."

I've been following this local story for the past week because it's something that happened in the neighborhood.

I was thinking of the anti-semite remarks and the police idea that there's some conspiracy. But what if following Occum's Razor that it is just as simple as someone else, walking up to a reporter, or calling a reporter, and making up the whole scene just like the "Chk Chk Boom! girl told a lie" in Australia about a shooting? Is it possible that the very idea of internet trolling is actually invading real life in a similar way with hit and run anonymity?

I think it's quite possible.

Glory's Sun · 07-10-2009, 01:41 PM

it's possible that the witnesses are out to get the cops.. or this is a whole made thing..

but it's also no stretch to think that a cop did this, using an anti-semite remark is no excuse for police brutality.

squeeeb · 07-10-2009, 02:31 PM

it fascinates me how things can get so out of hand so quickly over such small shit, like a sick pug on a subway.

what is the relation between the two witnesses who claim she made anti-semetic statements and the police? could they be people who just had a grudge against her? if most of the people did not hear her say such things, and suddenly two people claim she did, that is suspect to me.

yes, it's entirely possible they just made that up. what did the cop say? did he say she made those statements?

either way, like guccilvr pointed out, even if she did indeed say those things, the police officer had no right to hit her and use undue force against her. cops take verbal abuse every day, and they know verbal abuse does not justify any sort of physical response. if she hit him, he can still only legally use reasonable force to defend himself. so he is wrong no matter what.

Punk.of.Ages · 07-10-2009, 02:47 PM

A cop lying to cover his ass?!

No way...

Leftover Crack-Gang Control-YouTube

Cynthetiq · 07-10-2009, 03:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Punk.of.Ages

A cop lying to cover his ass?!

No way...

Leftover Crack-Gang Control-YouTube

If you read the article the officer is not ever made the statement about the arrest, nor is it HIM or any other office stating that the anti-semetic remarks were made. The NY Post reporter is the one that found the "witnesses" statements.

Quote:

View: RUFF RIDER 'CURSED' COP HASIDIC OFFICER IN SUBWAY CANINE FRACAS
Source: Nypost
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RUFF RIDER 'CURSED' COPHASIDIC OFFICER IN SUBWAY CANINE FRACAS
RUFF RIDER 'CURSED' COP
HASIDIC OFFICER IN SUBWAY CANINE FRACAS

By REUVEN FENTON and REUVEN BLAU

Last updated: 9:06 am
July 1, 2009
Posted: 2:42 am
July 1, 2009

The city's first Hasidic cop was excoriated in a anti-Semitic rant by a dog-loving subway passenger who allegedly refused to place her sick pet in an animal carrier, sources and a witness said yesterday.

Brooklyn blogger Chrissie Brodigan claimed Officer Joel Witriol went ballistic when he saw her take her pug, Dempsey, out of her purse in violation of subway regulations at around 5:30 p.m. Monday. She said he cuffed her, insulted her and roughed her up.

But a witness, Viane Delgado, said Brodigan was the one out of line. Delgado said Witriol "repeatedly" asked the woman to place the barking pug in a carrier she had. But instead, she allegedly insulted him with anti-Semitic slurs and tried to walk away.

"You f---ing Jew, you're not even human," Delgado quoted Brodigan as saying.

She repeatedly said, "Jewish people think they own everything," a source said.

But Brodigan denied that account.

"I don't remember saying anything anti-Semitic," she said. "I do remember saying, 'Clearly, you have trouble with women.' I probably called him an a--hole."

According to her account, Witriol "said he needed to talk to me" as she was ascending a staircase at the L-line Bedford Avenue station.

"He pushed me against the wall and said, 'I need your name and ID.' "

Brodigan, 32, said that when she told Witriol she had left her wallet at work, things turned ugly.

"He pushed me against the wall and said, 'If you're gonna act like a woman, I'm gonna treat you like a woman,' " said Brodigan.

The blogger denied she had a carrying case with her and said her dog suffers from a health condition that causes it to overheat.

She claims that when she started to walk away, "he handcuffed my wrist, pushed me against the wall, punched me in the back and kicked me in the shin."

She also claimed Witriol at one point put his hands on her breasts.

Melissa Randazzo, 29, another witness, backed up Brodigan's story.

"His tone was really alarming," Randazzo said of Witriol. "The girl looked scared. She didn't look like someone who would get into trouble. Something didn't seem right about this situation."

Witriol's family would not comment on the case last night.

The NYPD said that there's no record of any impropriety on the part of Witriol and that Brodigan was given a summons for failing to identify herself and for not having a dog in a proper container.

A police source said Brodigan was belligerent and argumentative.

Brodigan claimed the cop took away her pug and threatened he'd have it "put down."

reuven.fenton@nypost.com

as far as dog owners go, telling a dog owner ANYTHING in NYC is about like telling them something about their child. It is generally met with vitriol, malice, and spite.

Punk.of.Ages · 07-10-2009, 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cynthetiq

If you read the article the officer is not ever made the statement about the arrest, nor is it HIM or any other office stating that the anti-semetic remarks were made. The NY Post reporter is the one that found the "witnesses" statements.

Fair enough. The articles don't state the police made the allegations of anti-semitism, but it also doesn't state they're denying it.

Cynthetiq · 07-10-2009, 03:24 PM

What the NYPD is addressing and rightfully so is the supposed "brutality" or abusing the individual.

Quote:

View: HASID COP HAS RAY'S BLESSING
Source: Nypost
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HASID COP HAS RAY'S BLESSING
HASID COP HAS RAY'S BLESSING

By MURRAY WEISS

July 2, 2009 --

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly came to the defense yesterday of a Hasidic cop accused of abusing a female straphanger he arrested for having an unleashed dog in the subway.

But Kelly did say her allegation will be probed by the Civilian Compliant Review Board.

"[There is] no indication that she was [manhandled]," he said of Brooklyn blogger Chrissie Brodigan.

"She made an allegation that she was abused in some way, and that's an appropriate issue for the Civilian Complaint Review Board to handle."

Brodigan got into a confrontation with Officer Joel Witriol, the city's first Hasidic cop, when she refused to put her pug in a travel container Monday.

Witnesses say she hurled anti-Semitic remarks at the yarmulke-wearing officer when he wanted to give her a summons.

Punk.of.Ages · 07-10-2009, 03:28 PM

My original point, in all its sarcastic glory, was that police unnecessarily brutalizing citizens and then attempting to cover it up is nothing new. I do not doubt for a minute that this cop treated this woman the way she is charging him with.

Manic_Skafe · 07-10-2009, 03:35 PM

I'm much more willing to believe the National Enquirer over the New York Post.

Whether or not she made those remarks is besides the point as it's obviously wrong to insult a person on the grounds of their race but does that warrant an arrest? Refusing to make use of an animal carrier certainly doesn't. Does it warrant separation of employment? I don't think so but she likely has no legal recourse as New York is a fire at will state.

All I'm convinced of is that there is likely more to this than at least one side is letting on.

Edit: What's crazy is that station along with the L train is always packed - all the time and especially during rush hour. I haven't bothered to dig but I can't imagine it will take long for more information to become widely available.

WinchesterAA · 07-15-2009, 01:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cynthetiq

I've been following this local story for the past week because it's something that happened in the neighborhood.

I was thinking of the anti-semite remarks and the police idea that there's some conspiracy. But what if following Occum's Razor that it is just as simple as someone else, walking up to a reporter, or calling a reporter, and making up the whole scene just like the Chk Chk Boom! girl told a lie[/URL]" in Australia about a shooting? Is it possible that the very idea of internet trolling is actually invading real life in a similar way with hit and run anonymity?

I think it's quite possible.

I believe the bottom line that indicates most heavily that something cool is about to happen is that you can be an honest person in America, and at the same time, be the #1 most wanted individual, all you're waiting for is an encounter with a certain person and it's all over for you as you know it.

The first thing anyone hears these days is what they attribute to the truth. (additionally, it may be through word of mouth. IE someone reads an article about this woman who's apparently racist, injects his own perspective on it (which is false at present I might add, without actually being there you really can't make too many assumptions that are sound enough to convict someone in court over, which is the way it should be..) but then you start talking to a friend about the article in your typical way, which might be to say, "Yeah, this lady up in NYC got in a fight with a cop, started calling him all kinds of terrible names, then she got fired."

Friend says, "Good"

WRONG!

Or, for example, say you're about to unleash a great product, but 5 minutes before you do, CNN comes on the television saying new research (word of mouth, probably) indicates this shit sucks! Here are a number of superficial limitations you can expect with a certain product, nevermind the fact it has nothing to do with anything, it's true and bad because I say so.

Secretly, the reporter steps away from the computer to think for a brief moment, "You know what's sad? I really don't care about any of this, and this dude is about to lose his business because of me.. hmm, oh well, this is what I get paid for."

Meanwhile, joe average will say straight to your face, "It's MY belief that what this person says is true."

FU-BAR!

See how far it gets you telling someone, "What you believe is SHIT!" but that's what it is.

Charlatan · 07-15-2009, 04:23 PM

I read about this when the story broke and I have a hard time not believing that the cop did the things he is accused of doing. I also think that the woman was probably a bit out of control but probably not to the extent that she needed to be abused (verbally or otherwise).

The charges of anti-Semitic vitriol coming out of her mouth sound trumped up given the time line.

07-10-2009, 02:31 PM	#3 (permalink)
squeeeb part of the problem Location: hic et ubique	it fascinates me how things can get so out of hand so quickly over such small shit, like a sick pug on a subway. what is the relation between the two witnesses who claim she made anti-semetic statements and the police? could they be people who just had a grudge against her? if most of the people did not hear her say such things, and suddenly two people claim she did, that is suspect to me. yes, it's entirely possible they just made that up. what did the cop say? did he say she made those statements? either way, like guccilvr pointed out, even if she did indeed say those things, the police officer had no right to hit her and use undue force against her. cops take verbal abuse every day, and they know verbal abuse does not justify any sort of physical response. if she hit him, he can still only legally use reasonable force to defend himself. so he is wrong no matter what. __________________ onward to mayhem!

07-10-2009, 02:47 PM	#4 (permalink)
Punk.of.Ages Forming Location: ....a state of pure inebriation.	A cop lying to cover his ass?! No way... Leftover Crack-Gang Control-YouTube __________________ "The fact is that censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates, in the end, the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion..." - Henry Steel Commager "Punk rock music is great music played by really bad, drunk musicians." -Fat Mike Last edited by Punk.of.Ages; 07-10-2009 at 02:49 PM..

07-10-2009, 03:28 PM	#8 (permalink)
Punk.of.Ages Forming Location: ....a state of pure inebriation.	My original point, in all its sarcastic glory, was that police unnecessarily brutalizing citizens and then attempting to cover it up is nothing new. I do not doubt for a minute that this cop treated this woman the way she is charging him with. __________________ "The fact is that censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates, in the end, the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion..." - Henry Steel Commager "Punk rock music is great music played by really bad, drunk musicians." -Fat Mike

07-10-2009, 03:35 PM	#9 (permalink)
Manic_Skafe More Than You Expect Location: Queens	I'm much more willing to believe the National Enquirer over the New York Post. Whether or not she made those remarks is besides the point as it's obviously wrong to insult a person on the grounds of their race but does that warrant an arrest? Refusing to make use of an animal carrier certainly doesn't. Does it warrant separation of employment? I don't think so but she likely has no legal recourse as New York is a fire at will state. All I'm convinced of is that there is likely more to this than at least one side is letting on. Edit: What's crazy is that station along with the L train is always packed - all the time and especially during rush hour. I haven't bothered to dig but I can't imagine it will take long for more information to become widely available. __________________ "Porn is a zoo of exotic animals that becomes boring upon ownership." -Nersesian Last edited by Manic_Skafe; 07-10-2009 at 03:46 PM..

07-15-2009, 04:23 PM	#11 (permalink)
Charlatan Getting it. Super Moderator Location: Lion City	I read about this when the story broke and I have a hard time not believing that the cop did the things he is accused of doing. I also think that the woman was probably a bit out of control but probably not to the extent that she needed to be abused (verbally or otherwise). The charges of anti-Semitic vitriol coming out of her mouth sound trumped up given the time line. __________________ "My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars." - Old Man Luedecke

07-10-2009, 01:41 PM	#2 (permalink)
Glory's Sun Registered User	it's possible that the witnesses are out to get the cops.. or this is a whole made thing.. but it's also no stretch to think that a cop did this, using an anti-semite remark is no excuse for police brutality.