The New York Daily News and the New York Post reported today that a Brooklyn man has filed suit against the NYPD, alleging that several cops beat him without reason last Sunday. The 32-year-old victim, Jabbar Campbell, accused the officers of yelling anti-gay insults while they punched him.
In the suit, Campbell described hosting a Pride party at his Crown Heights apartment for about 80 people in the gay and drag communities. At about 2:50am on Sunday, several officers visited the party and asked Campbell to lower the noise level, and he complied.
Ten minutes later, a different group of about nine officers from the 77th Precinct arrived. As they banged their flashlights on Campbell’s door, one officer reached up to turn the security camera away from Campbell’s doorway. His badge is clearly visible in the videotape, which Campbell’s attorney released to the media.
Officers rushed in as Campbell opened the door. Allegedly, two officers held his arms back, one cop lifted his head, and another repeatedly punched him in the face. “They were screaming and cursing saying things like ‘fag,’ ‘homo,’ ‘a–hole,’ just a bunch of anti-gay slurs,” Campbell told the Daily News. He was left with a bloody lip, black eye and swelling on the left side of his face. Adding insult to injury, the officers handcuffed Campbell and charged him with resisting arrest.
The NYPD has not commented on the case.
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