ROCHELLE - A black teenager and son of a city detective is alleging he was assaulted by police, and yesterday local black leaders pressed the city for answers."Don't get me wrong, there are some good police officers - black, white, purple and green," said Ron Williams, president of the city's chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "There's also a lot of bad police officers, but we're not painting them all with the same brush. All we're saying is we want to be treated with respect just like everyone else.
"Demetrius Hazelton, 17, was arrested April 13 on a charge of disorderly conduct, a violation. He is due in City Court on Thursday.
Williams stood yesterday alongside Hazelton and his father, Detective Timothy McKnight, to discuss the allegation. About 50 people stood behind them in solidarity.
Earlier this month, Hazelton filed a notice of claim against the city. He alleges in his lawsuit that his civil rights were violated during his arrest. Several city officials, including City Manager Charles Strome III, police Capt. Joseph Schaller, acting Corporation Counsel Kathleen Gill and city spokeswoman Kathy Gilwit, declined to comment on the allegation. Each cited pending litigation as the reason for not discussing the matter.
Police Commissioner Patrick Carroll and Mayor Noam Bramson could not be reached for comment.
According to the police report, officers responded to noisy parties at the Hartley Houses complex April 13 and tried to break up an altercation there.After the crowd ignored police commands to calm down, the report said, an officer brandished a Taser and fired it in the air without a cartridge to show the crowd the device's electric shock.The report said many of the people there, including Hazelton, ran from the police and into traffic on Lincoln Avenue. An officer asked Hazelton to get off the road, the report said, and Hazelton mocked the officer's commands by imitating him with a "white racial monotone voice." The report described the voice as the same one comedian Dave Chappelle uses "when making fun of white people."
The officer again asked Hazelton to get off the road, according to the report, and Hazelton said, "What the (expletive) are you going to do, white boy? My father is a detective. What are you, just a cop?"
Hazelton mocked the police to the crowd, according to the report, and an officer tried arresting him by pushing the teen against a police car.
Hazelton then tried to push himself off the car when another officer came by to help take Hazelton down to the ground, the report said.
Calvin Scholar, Hazelton's attorney, disputed the police report and alleged that several key details from the incident were omitted from the report.Those alleged omissions make up a bulk of the lawsuit against the city.
The lawsuit claims the officer pushing Hazelton against the police car threatened to break his arms while other officers smashed his head multiple times against the car."We dispute that there was any lawful reason for him to be arrested," Scholar said.
"We believe he was singled out."Scholar added that Hazelton did not use a Dave Chappelle voice to mock the officer but said Hazelton did reference the fact he was the son of a New Rochelle detective.
McKnight did not want to comment on his son's lawsuit, but Damon Jones, executive director of the Westchester County chapter of the National Black Police Association, spoke on his behalf.Jones said Hazelton's arrest wasn't an isolated incident happening in the area."This is an issue in communities of color throughout Westchester County," Jones said."If false reports are generated, we cannot trust the internal mechanisms of the New Rochelle Police Department to police their own," Jones continued. "There has to be some type of outside investigation."
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