I’ll say it again. When a few cops do something stupid, no, it oughtn’t reflect poorly on all police officers. But when the cops who do behave poorly aren’t held accountable, it does and should cast suspicion on all police officers. It’s the lack of accountability and the “we’re above the law” mentality that’s troubling, and that undermines the public’s trust in policing in general.

Case in point:

A Manhattan face-painter and balloon-animal maker said overzealous cops tackled him off his bike, shoved two guns to his head and threw him in the slammer for more than four hours - all because his misplaced balloon pump looked like a bomb.
Alexander “Sasha” Alhovsky said the takedown occurred in front of dozens of horrified children on Thursday at about 5.30 p.m. outside an Upper East Side playground.

“They thought I was a terrorist,” Alhovsky, 36, said yesterday.

The previous Sunday, Alhovsky said, he left a rainbow-striped balloon pump in a Starbucks on 66th Street and First Avenue - and a worker called cops.

Four days later, he was cycling home from Central Park - where he’s plied his trade outside the zoo entrance for 15 years - when about eight cops jumped on him from behind, he claimed.

“There was a gun in my face and another on the back of my neck,” he said. “They were screaming, ‘Get off your f- - -ing bike, you f- - -’ . . . They were dragging me around.”

So what happened after the police realized their mistake?

“It appears the officers took prudent steps to handle what may have been a dangerous situation,” Police Chief Michael Collins said in a written statement.

Not even an apology?

This entry was posted on Monday, July 3rd, 2006 at 6:26 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.