NYPD Catches Sexual Assailant, Then Lets Him Go Free Because He Didn't Feel Like Being Questioned

[n2doc]

Good news, criminals: You can sexually assault someone, get caught, decide you simply don’t feel like being questioned right at this moment and then walk free. Or at least those are the rules the NYPD plays by:

New details have emerged about a 22 year-old woman who was attacked yesterday morning around 5:30AM by a Hispanic male in his 40s. CBS New York reports that the woman was returning home from her job at a Manhattan night club when she exited the 4th Avenue/9th Street F/G station. As she walked on 16th Street between 4th and 5th Avenues she noticed a man was following her, but thought that she’d shaken him. Soon after, the man jumped at and groped her. Neighbors heard the young woman scream, and as they ran outside, the assailant fled. He didn’t get far though — a neighbor cornered him on Prospect Ave and 3rd Ave.

According to both CBS and NY1, the assailant was detained by police for about 15 minutes before being released.

“I was just (beep) off that the cops didn’t do anything about the guy,” Donald Harrington, a neighbor, told NY1. “They came up here, I told them where the girl was and they just kept on going. They said they had no victim even though we call them back. We took the girl down we spoke to the police and they said the guy didn’t want to be questioned so they let him go.”

Police returned to the scene on Wednesday to speak with neighbors and check out security footage.

New York’s Finest, right here.

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/935266/nypd_catches_sexual_assailant%2C_then_lets_him_go_free_because_he_didn%27t_feel_like_being_questioned/

[MrScorpio]

1. The NYPD is avoiding actual crime solving now

They're fully committed to the Drug War; which basically consists of stop and frisks of poor, minority males and drug raids based on sometimes grossly inaccurate information from paid informants.

Attempting to solve real crimes incurs an inherent risk that some of the crimes may go unsolved. Unsolved crimes are not great things to have on their metrics. So leadership has decided that it will not stand for crummy metrics. Hence, that means if you get mugged in NYC, the NYPD probably won't give a fuck about you unless you're a warm corpse.

That's life in the big city.

So it pains to ask: If the NYPD chooses not to solve a crime... Does that mean it actually happened?

[sakabatou]

2. Ugh...

[Honeycombe8]

3. Unbelievable. They probably didn't consider it serious enough to warrant their time...

since it was a simple groping. But what happens is...a guy starts out with groping, then progresses...or maybe he would've all out raped her, if he hadn't been chased away.

[Archae]

4. Sounds like the cops around here.

Sheboygan cops are notoriously lazy.

[kestrel91316]

5. Sounds like LAPD. If it doesn't involve a gun or

assaulting a cop, it isn't a crime in this town.

[Edweird]

6. So we hate the 4th ammendment now? If you're not under arrest you don't have to stay.

[ArcticFox]

8. Huh?

It sounds like they had probable cause to make an arrest.

[Edweird]

11. "Then Lets Him Go Free Because He Didn't Feel Like Being Questioned"

I'd say they didn't.

[ArcticFox]

16. There were witnesses to an assault

There's probable cause for arrest. Your quote is irrelevant.

[Edweird]

17. Ok, so if they had probable cause, as you believe, why was he even given the option of an interview?

Answer: They did not have probable cause. He was not placed under arrest. He was free to go at all times and declined to speak to the police. They don't need your statement to arrest you if they have probable cause. They just arrest you.

[Occulus]

9. Yup, that's it. You pinned us all to the wall.

[Edweird]

12. Hey, you too have the right to remain silent and the right to leave if you are not under arrest.

Support it.

[obamanut2012]

10. The point was, they didn't arrest him

Because he didn't feel like being arrested.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

14. That was the claim...

Very poorly written article...

If the first responders had probable cause, he would have been arrested for it.

If they thought there was something to the story, they would have detained him on some pretext.

That they did neither means that at that time, they either had nothing to say a crime has been committed or not enough reason to think the guy was the perp.

[bupkus]

7. The cops probably knew the guy

An NYPD version of George Zimmerman and the Sanford PD.

[Fire Walk With Me]

13. They must have spotted some Occupiers who needed beating.

[treestar]

15. This story is confused

There is probably something missing here. Or some type of screw-up somewhere.

[DCKit]

18. Well, geez, it's not as if he was peacefully protesting, or anything.

Besides, after he told them he was a job creator, what could they hold him on?

[Warren DeMontague]

19. Never fear. If he'd been a hippie smoking a joint, he'd be in jail right now.

http://www.disinfo.com/2011/02/marijuana-arrests-in-new-york-city-skyrocket/