Patricia Rodney, a 61-year-old woman with diabetes, was told by her insurance company she needed to file a police report over a missing glucometer before they could replace the glucose-measuring device.
But she ended up Ьгᴜтɑʟʟʏ arrested by several New York City police officers while trying to obtain the report, according to body camera footage released this week.
However, the NYPD created a policy stating that citizens are not allowed to record inside precincts and they even posted a sign on a wall to send the message to citizens – even though departmental policies has no legal bearing on citizens.
Rodney was charged with several contempt-of-cop charges, including resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration, disorderly conduct and criminal trespass which were all dismissed, according to Hell Gate, an independent news site in New York City that broke the story.
The incident took place on December 2, 2020 after Rodney walked into the 62nd Precinct in Brooklyn to obtain a police report over the missing glucometer. The diabetic grandmother of three must measure her blood glucose several times throughout the day but was unable to do so after losing the device.
According to the lawsuit filed in February, Rodney had walked into the precinct days earlier and spoken to a cop behind the front desk who agreed to help her with the report. The cop took her information and told her to return later in the week to pick up a copy of the completed report.
But when she returned, there was another cop behind the front desk who told her she needed to pick up the report from police headquarters in Manhattan which is about an hour away on the subway.
Believing she was getting the run-around, Rodney told the cops she was not leaving until they gave her the report which is when several cops surrounded her in an attempt to intimidate her.
She pulled out her phone to start recording after they told her they had turned on their body cameras. They then pointed to a sign behind her that said “members of the public are prohibited from audio/video recording or photography inside this facility.”
The sign did not include any statute or ordinance number so it was just a suggestion enforced by intimidation and violence. Another example of cops creating their own laws when they do not agree with existing laws.
The video shows several cops pouncing on her with one cop yelling, “I’m not playing with you!’. The video also shows a cop pulling her face mask over her eyes and walking away after she was handcuffed.
The lawsuit which you can read here names only two cops, Sergeant Hernandez and Tamara Clement, but lists several other unidentified cops as John or Janes Does.
Watch the video below:
