Debra Goodman talking:
I was coming out of the subway, and I crossed the street, and I noticed a woman who appeared homeless, in a wheelchair, talking to a couple of EMT guys. I was a legal secretary; I’m retired now. And so, I noticed this woman talking to two EMTs, and I walked a little bit further, and I saw three police standing by a police van. So I walked a little bit further, about 10 feet past them, and I just turned around and began to film what was going on. And as I was filming, as I was attempting to film, an officer approached me, and he held his smartphone up as if he was going to film me. And I tried to explain to him that he didn’t have that right, because he was a police officer on duty, and I had the right. And then we had some words, and he asked me for some ID. And I knew I wasn’t doing anything wrong, so I refused. And he told me I was under arrest, grabbed my wrist, put handcuffs on me, threw me in the van like a piece of meat—a police van—and I was detained for approximately 25 hours, including going to Central Booking and other places in shackles and handcuffs behind my back. And because I have had a lot of tissue removed due to breast cancer surgery, having the handcuffs behind my back caused terrible pain. And I mentioned this several times, and nothing was done about it. And then, you know, approximately 25 hours later, I was arraigned. And I had to appear at criminal court five separate times, at which times I was offered the same thing. And I didn’t want to plead or take any deal. And so, finally, after five visits to criminal court, the charges were dismissed.
the right of people to record the police when they’re interacting with people, providing that they don’t interfere with the police doing their job.
Iris Baez talking:
I was in Florida. My husband was in the house. And that night, they were going to go to Florida, so they had all the suitcases in the front of the house. And they found a football, so the four brothers decided to play with—you know, a little touch game. the four boys. And they went downstairs, and they started playing. And then, one of the ball—one of them threw the ball over David and hit the patrol car in the—it hit the floor.
A patrol car was parked and the football hit the patrol car in the bottom. Henry said it hit—it ricocheted from the floor and hit the patrol car. And when the ball hit the patrol car, Livoti got out, and he told him to get away from the block. And then he said, “But we live here. This is the only house in the block.” So then they moved up and kept on throwing the ball. So he went back in the car, but then he got out again, and he told them, “Get out,” you know, to get out. And then he put David in the patrol car. He handcuffed David and put him in the patrol car.
Then Anthony said, “But what are we doing? We’re not doing nothing. We’re not bothering nobody.” Then, there was a black jeep that my other son had. And he threw him, pushed him against the jeep. And then, when his body ricocheted back, that’s when he put the chokehold on him. And then they were screaming. They they were calling my husband. So my husband came down. In underwears, he came down. And then my husband said, “Why are you doing this? Why? He’s a sick man. You’re hurting him. He got asthma.”
he had asthma when he was younger, but he outgrew it. So, my husband was telling him to stop. And then he said, “So, if he has asthma, what the F— is he doing playing football?” And then—it is ironic. And then, so, he kept on, and then when Anthony fell to the floor, at that time, there was another patrol car coming, and it stopped. And in that patrol car that came last was Daisy Boria, the policewoman that said that nothing went down the way they were saying it went down, because, don’t forget, the police got 48 hours to fix the story, make it happen the way they want.
Anthony, had died in this chokehold. And then there was no CPR. There was no ambulance called. They dragged his body into the car like an animal and threw him in the back seat of the car. Mind you, my husband was saying he’s a sick man, he has asthma. Nobody gave him CPR at the time.
— source democracynow.org
Iris Baez, mother of Anthony Baez, who died in 1994 after an NYPD officer placed him in a chokehold.
Debra Goodman, retired legal secretary who filed a lawsuit against the City of New York after she was arrested for filming police officers watching emergency medical technicians speak with a woman in a wheelchair.