A New Jersey police department is under fire after footage of three of its officers beating up a Black teen at a back-to-school block party was released to the public. The young person was being detained, but many believe the video shows the cop used excessive force during the arrest.
On Sunday, Aug. 28, 19-year-old Haneif Booker and many of the youth in his community attended an end-of-summer block party. The event started around noon with a DJ spinning music, food for everyone, and a section designated for a school supply giveaway.
Around 8 p.m. members of the Paterson Police Department showed up to answer noise complaints, asking the organizers to see their permit for the jam. The organizer showed the officers his city-approved permission contract.
“We did everything by the books,” the organizer, who asked to speak anonymously out of fear of police retribution, said.
Forty minutes later, the entire event was shut down, chaos was everywhere and Booker was being charged with resisting arrest and allegedly assaulting one, according to NJ.com.
One witness, Booker’s cousin Melissa Sanchez, explained how everything went from zero to a hundred.
She said she and the suspect were leaving a local store when they saw police questioning another relative at a traffic stop on Sparrow Street. The family member happened to be Booker’s brother, and so the two went over to see what was going on.
Officers allege they pulled the brother over because he made an illegal U-turn and was driving recklessly.
As a crowd of almost 150 people gathered (including Booker and Sanchez) to watch the altercation, tension rose swiftly. A police affidavit described how the officers called for additional backup.
Booker allegedly yelled out to the officers, “What did he do?” the cousin recalls.
Seeing how unsettled he was after he asked the question, Sanchez says she tried to deescalate her cousin’s rising anger, pulling him away to a nearby garage. However, as they walked away, someone from the crowd threw a bottle at one of the police officers, prompting three of them to respond.
“Next thing I knew, his brother was being arrested, and Haneif was being attacked by three officers,” Sanchez remarked.
They pulled out their guns and grabbed Booker.
Allegedly, the cops then violently toss the teen to the ground — with one officer stepping on his back.
A bystander begins to record the altercation, first capturing officers arresting the brother up against a car, but then, catching the cops as they hold Booker up against the garage door.
Footage shows one of the police punching him in the head until he is forced down.
The police are attempting to stop the videographer from recording, but to no avail. Each time an officer would try to move him, he would say, “Don’t touch me.”
The officers started to push the videographer back into the driveway and pulled up a pepper spray canister. Eventually, he sprayed the group, all protesting the arrests of both men. Behind the camera, the man can be heard coughing as he stumbles back.
The bystander does not stop, opting to show PDP taking him away.
The PPD’s arrest affidavit identifies Booker as the one that threw the bottle, claiming it hit one of the officers in the head. The report further states, Booker ran into an open garage and was followed by four officers, who followed him to arrest him.
Booker, according to police, resisted the arrest, kicking and screaming as they tried to secure him. The affidavit states the young man pushed himself off the garage wall into them.
The report admits that an officer elbowed Booker after telling him to “Stop resisting,” and that another one pepper-sprayed him so that his colleagues could get him to the ground.
After he fell, officers still could not get him handcuffed because he placed his hands under his body, the affidavit says. This caused one detective on site to hit him in his upper chest area in an effort to force his hands from behind his back. This was the only way they could get him under control and taken into custody. He was booked into the Bergen County Jail and denied bail.
Reports say, Booker, who has no adult criminal record, sustained a fractured nose and injuries to his skull and pelvis, but according to his family, he was not immediately treated. His injuries were adressed four days later.
His father, William Booker, said, “When I saw my son, it looked like his bone was sticking out of his nose. My son is emotionally scarred and going through it right now.”
His brother was also arrested and charged with resisting arrest.
The police affidavit stated the brother, who requested his name be withheld, exited his car. It is claimed he pushed the detectives and acted erratically when the officers attempted to bring him in.
The police report of the incident is radically different from what other witnesses of the arrest said. Some witnesses dispute that Booker threw the bottle; others claim some of the bystanders were injured as a result of the police failing to de-escalate the situation.
Community activist Zellie Thomas said, “Paterson, like other municipalities after the murder of George Floyd, have claimed to adopt and embrace de-escalation trainings.”
Adding, “But what we continue to see is not de-escalation, but escalation to violence. [The] use of force doesn’t create calm. It only creates victims.”
One of the organizers, who wanted to be anonymous out of fear of police retribution, said, “There was no need for it to get as wild as it did. All I could see was the officers slamming Haneif’s dead into the garage, and I heard him tell them he couldn’t breathe.”
The video also captures him saying he could not breathe toward the end.
Booker’s family has now secured a civil rights lawyer, Shelly Stangler. They claim after the event, police details are following them around, riding near their homes repeatedly, and have even stopped them without cause in the last month since the arrest.
Strangler believes the case is an example of out-of-control law enforcement agents exploiting the power of the badge and bullying a Black teen.
She said, “There is a known history with the Paterson police department that involves excessive force on African Americans and other people of color.
“The department has had multiple lawsuits involving excessive force over the years.”
Booker remains in jail, according to his defense attorney Miles Feinstein, and the team is currently waiting for a court date to be set.
The city’s mayor, Andre Sayegh, has not released a statement regarding the arrest or the questionable conduct of the officers.
