$ not enough, I want reform
A FORMER high-ranking lawyer for the public advocate’s office who says cops racially profiled her is frustrated at the city’s unwillingness to offer anything beyond the $37,500 settlement stemming from her arrest.
Chaumtoli Huq says she’s not happy with the outcome of difficult negotiations with city attorneys over the encounter in which an officer allegedly arrested her in July 2014 for no reason following a pro-Palestinian protest.
The ex-staffer for Letitia James had sought a meeting between the commanding officer of the Midtown South Precinct, where she was arrested, and leaders of advocacy groups for Muslim Americans and women.
But the city said the idea was a nonstarter.
“The settlement without any changes is like they paid me for injury due to an open manhole but don’t fix that manhole,” she said.
She settled on the idea of a meeting after the city scoffed at her proposal that Mayor de Blasio hold a town hall session on abuse, Huq said.
“I thought I was asking for something basic. Something the mayor should do anyway,” Huq said.
The 43-year-old mother of two said the money was “not significant.”
But she has accepted the deal because the city made an ultimatum, she said.
“They were basically like, ‘Take the money or we can continue the litigation,’ ” Huq said.
Huq’s attorney Rebecca Heinegg said she wasn’t surprised by the city declining to make any gestures toward police reform as part of the settlement, but called it nevertheless “disappointing and counterproductive.”
Since Huq filed her suit in September, she has been unemployed. Huq says she had taken leave from the public advocate’s office the day before her arrest to do work on factory conditions in her native Bangladesh. But James’ office says that was actually her last day of employment.
Huq charged that she was targeted by officers because she’s a Muslim woman. Huq was wearing a traditional South Asian tunic while waiting for her husband and their 6- and 10-year-old kids to come out from a bathroom stop at Ruby Tuesday’s in Times Square when she was told to leave by a cop, the suit says.
She told the officer she was waiting for her family, and he responded by pushing her against the wall and placed her under arrest “without any legal basis,” according to documents.
When she said the handcuffs were hurting her, one of the officers, Ryan Lathrop, allegedly said, “Shut your mouth” and “You’re my prisoner.”
When the cop found out she had a different last name than her husband’s, he allegedly told her, “In America, wives take the names of their husbands.”
She spent nine hours in custody and accepted an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal five days later for her disorderly conduct and resisting arrest charges.
An inquiry by the Civilian Complaint Review Board cleared police of wrongdoing in the incident, Huq said.
“A settlement was finalized after discussions and agreement between the parties,” a Law Department spokesman said.