Glen Grays, a 27-year-old African-American mail carrier, was abruptly handcuffed and taken away by cops on St. Patrick’s Day, while delivering mail in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The reason for the arrest was civil courage directed the wrong way.
Scroll down to the bottom of the article to see footage of the arrest.
It all started when Grays was about to deliver a package at 999 President Street. It was late afternoon on March 17th, when Grays was descending the steps of his mail truck. All of a sudden, a car made a sharp right turn onto President from Franklin Street, and Grays was almost sideswiped.
He had stepped down backwards, which postal workers often do to minimize wear and tear on the knees, and only saw the car out of the corner of his eye, but shouted at the driver as he climbed back up again.
Anyone who’s visited this area in Brooklyn must have noticed the over-the-limit speed of many cars and other reckless ways of driving, and would applaud the civil courage displayed by protesting the perceived danger. Which cop wouldn’t appreciate this and come to Grays’ aid?
Not the four plainclothes police officers in the black car, which was the one Grays had just shouted at. As they came tearing back in reverse, the driver, according to Grays, said to him:
“I have the right of way because I’m law enforcement.”
When Grays took his mail to the front door of 999 President Street, the police had exited the car and followed him. This is where an observer on the street started filming the incident, and the footage shows Grays, in his postal uniform, being handcuffed, frisked and taken to the black, unmarked car.
The footage also shows the cops telling him to stop resisting, even though the video shows no resistance, a chilling similarity to the prelude of the recent Eric Garner case.
The footage stops when they reach the unmarked car, but as the New York Times recaps the incident, Grays was placed in the back seat with cuffed hands and without a seatbelt, and the mail truck was left unattended. The driver was apparently so busy interacting with Grays in the back seat, that he hit the vehicle in front of them, which made Grays smash his shoulder against the front seat.
Grays was taken to the 71st Precinct station, and issued a summons for disorderly conduct before being released. The summons requires him to appear in court.
However, the Brooklyn borough president, Eric L. Adams, who is a former police officer himself, has taken interest in the case and released the video last week at a news conference. He expressed outrage over the harassment of yet another young black man, and to make things even worse, an employee of the federal government in the middle of doing his job.
Grays has already had his share of struggles, despite his young age. Twenty-two years ago, when he was only a 5-year-old child, his grandmother covered his eyes on a sidewalk in the Brooklyn area of Brownsville to protect him from witnessing a stabbing that took place right in front of them. Grays claims to have been to more funerals than graduations, but the horrors he has seen growing up have also stopped him from going down the wrong road.
Instead, Grays started working at Key Food in Park Slope for $117 a week, then studied at City Tech until he couldn’t afford it anymore, and finally he took a job in Floral Park, by Nassau County. To be there by 5.30 a.m, he had to leave his apartment in the Bronx at 3 a.m.
Grays is the oldest of six boys. His grandmother used to tell him that the best way for a black man to become successful is to stay away from the cops, and keep a clean record, and Grays wanted to live his life in a way to set a good example for his siblings. His mother, Sonya Sapp, said she worries about them every day, every minute, and every second of every day.
Crown Heights has a past of racial tension and violent riots since the 70’s, culminating with the three-day outbreak between the West Indian/African American and Jewish communities, known as the Crown Heights Riot. Tensions prevail despite recent gentrification, with a smaller upheaval in 2008, and incidents occurring as late as in November 2013. Residents sometimes feel there is not enough police protection in the area, while others have taken NYPD to court for bad behavior.
And how does Grays feel about all this? Well, he doesn’t hate cops. In fact, he is marrying one. Good and bad have found an ironic way of balancing itself out for Grays, as his fiancée is a New York City police officer whom he met while delivering the mail.
Featured image screengrab from YouTube.
