Cop’s race rant wrong
Rages at innocent shop worker
An apparent misunderstanding over whether a black NYPD cop could use a Brooklyn coffee shop’s bathroom exploded into an online tempest that police officials said Wednesday has spurred a department investigation.
The store’s owner says race had nothing to do with the incident — and he’s got video to back it up — but his claims came too late to quell the social media rage.
The online furor erupted over an incident Saturday when Officer Nisan Cornibert — who with other cops was detailed to a George Floyd protest in Greenpoint — asked to use the bathroom at Upstate Stock on Berry St.
“I came in and asked to use the bathroom and you told me, ‘No,’ ” Cornibert says in an online video recorded by a fellow cop.
“My colleague just came (from the bathroom),” Cornibert said. “She’s white.”
“Tell me how I feel,” Cornibert asked barista Justice Carlone — whom he interrupted repeatedly during their exchange.
“She’s a police officer. I’m in the same uniform. You told me ‘No,’ and I had to walk, and you told her ‘Yes,’ and that’s wrong.”
It turned out that Cornibert was wrong — the white officer was never allowed to use the store’s bathroom, said Upstate Stock owner Bram Robinson.
Security footage from the store, which Robinson shared on Instagram, shows the barista denying the white cop access to the bathroom.
Denying customers and cops the use of the bathroom had nothing to do with race, but had everything to do with the coronavirus pandemic hitting the city, Robinson said.
Robinson let two cops use the bathroom earlier that day — but only because he was there to clean and sanitize it.
The bathroom has been closed to all customers since the pandemic started, Robinson said. When he left the store that afternoon, he told his workers not to let anyone use the bathroom, he said.
“I am so sorry to my baristas for being intimidated by this a———,” Robinson
said in an Instagram post with a second video of the same interaction that was recorded by a customer.
After seeing the store’s security footage, Cornibert apologized, but the damage was already done, Robinson said.
Cornibert’s first video of the exchange — which was posted in Instagram — was shared more than 32,000 times with some posters calling for violence, Robinson said.
“He said he was factually wrong and emotionally right,” Robinson said.
Robinson, who is Canadian, added: “This is coming from a position of privilege. all Imagine if he even had more power against someone.”
Robinson brought the social media threats, which have since been taken down, to both the NYPD and the office of Assemblyman Joseph Lentol (D-Brooklyn). Lentol brought the matter to the attorney general’s office.
The NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau has launched an investigation and questioned Robinson Tuesday. They also plan to quesion Carlone nd Cornibert.
At the very east Cornibert an be discilined for postng a video of imself in uniorm, which is gainst the department’s social media policy, officials said.
Carlone said he felt powerless while Cornibert berated him in the store.
“I felt scared that they could arrest me for any reason,” the barista told the Daily News Wednesday. “It was so intimidating. He kept talking over me.”
He added that he was upset by other officers’ use of phones to record the encounter.
“It was really disheartening to see all the police officers complicit with his plan to paint me in this horrible light … trying to say this was due to racial tension,” said Carlone.
He added that none of the officers entering the store wore masks, as required by a state order.
“At the end of the day, it sucks for Upstate Stock, but that’s my face in the video,” Carlone said.
Cornibert declined comment when reached Wednesday.