A New York City councilman is angry after he was stopped by a police officer Friday night in Harlem and not given a reason why.
New York Police released the body camera footage after Yusef Salaam, one of the exonerated members of the Central Park Five, went public with the traffic stops and cited it as a reason he did not attend a police ride-along with Mayor Eric Adams on Saturday, WABC reported.
Police later said the officer pulled Salaam over because of his dark-tinted windows, a violation of state law.
In the footage, the officer approaches Salaam’s vehicle and asks him to roll down the back window, which the councilman does immediately. Salaam identifies himself to the officer, who asks if he’s working and sends him on his way.
Police issued a statement commending the officer’s “professional and respectful” conduct during the stop, which took less than a minute.
The officer did not tell Salaam why he pulled him over, and Salaam did not ask.
Adams’ ride-along on Saturday was a last ditch attempt to prevent the city council from overriding his veto of the “How Many Stops Act,” which would require officers to document nearly every interaction with the public, including stops like Salaam’s.
“This experience only amplified the importance of transparency for all police investigative stops, because the lack of transparency allows racial profiling and unconstitutional stops of all types to occur and often go unreported,” Salaam said of the incident.
Salaam was one of five Black and Latino teens convicted in the 1989 beating and rape of Central Park jogger Trisha Melli. He was convicted at age 15 and served seven years in prison before another man confessed to the attack. His conviction was vacated in 2002.
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[Featured image: NYPD]
