$5M brutality claim
Black Lives Matter protester says cops bashed him with bike
A Black Lives Matter activist, is planning a $5 million lawsuit, charging city bicycle cops gave him a two-wheeled trouncing during a wrongful arrest three months ago.
A video of the confrontation shows five cops descending on sign-carrying protester Walter (Hawk) Newsome — with one landing two roundhouse punches to his head and the others wrestling him to the street during a protest march at Broadway and W. 61st St.
Two cops were caught exchanging an apparent high five shortly after the officers shifted into high gear against Newsome, who recounted taking a knee to the head from another cop.
“I’m screaming, and they’re celebrating,” the 41-year-old Newsome told the Daily News. “It felt like 50 cops were on top of me. At one point, I was laying there with my arms in front of me — and they were still on top of me, pulling my shoulder back.They threw a bike down on top of me.”
Newsome — who filed a previous suit against the NYPD last year after his arrest at a Washington Square Park rally — said he suffered a torn rotator cuff in the March 28 incident while protesting against the shooting of unarmed black man Stephon Clark by cops in Sacramento.
The NYPD “illegally and without a proper warrant or cause, did … falsely arrest and imprison (Newsome),” the notice of claim read. “(He) was grabbed and had his arms twisted, kicked, pushed, slammed to the ground, pushed into and hit with a bicycle … (and) falsely imprisoned.”
The plaintiff claims he was held for 22 hours before the police finally charged him with obstructing government administration.
“This raises serious issues,” said his lawyer Sanford Rubenstein. “Does the NYPD target leaders at civil rights demonstrations for arrest?”
A spokesman for the city Law Department declined comment on the court filing.