by Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CMC)
Brooklyn, New York, USA - Four Trinidadian-born steel band players in the Caribbean J’Ouvert festival in Brooklyn, have filed a federal lawsuit against the City of New York and the New York Police Department (NYPD) officers following their “unconstitutional arrests” in September last year.
Michael Demas, Catherine Nunes, Gwynn Glasgow and Jennifer Frederick, members of the Heart of Steel Band [Hearts Of Steel], filed the lawsuit on Tuesday through their civil rights attorneys at the Manhattan law firm of Lord & Schewel PLLC. Demas is also the leader of the Heart of Steel Band.
The lawsuit claims that members of Heart of Steel Band and their guests were “unconstitutionally rounded up and arrested at a Pan Yard celebration in Flatbush, Brooklyn” on September 1, 2018.”
The lawsuit noted that Sergeant Alan Chau, an NYPD officer, “has been sued seven times in the last year alone for illegal arrests related to alleged alcohol offenses in the 67th precinct” in East Flatbush, Brooklyn.
Attorney Abraham Rubert-Schewel told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) like the prior lawsuits, the one filed on behalf of his clients, claimed that Sergeant Chau, who is responsible for enforcing all alcohol-related laws in the 67th Police Precinct, “unconstitutionally targeted and arrested guests at Caribbean and West Indian celebrations in Flatbush.
....He said the J’Ouvert steel band players and their guests were arrested for the administrative code violation, ABC 64-B, of “operating an unlicensed bottle club.”
....“Ms. Nunes and Ms. Frederick brought food to the celebration to share with their friends. Instead of a joyous start to J’Ouvert, the plaintiffs spent 24 hours in custody for charges that were all eventually dismissed and sealed,” he said.
....Rubert-Schewel also told CMC that the 67th Precinct “contains large Caribbean and West Indian communities who are routinely and consistently harassed and arrested without probable cause and charged with petty or administrative offenses, such as operating a bottle club without a license.”
....Prior to the annual J’Ouvert festival – which precedes, the massive West Indian American Day Carnival Parade on Brooklyn’s Eastern Parkway on Labour Day, the first Monday in September – Rubert-Schewel said that steel bands, in the Caribbean community in Brooklyn, such as Heart of Steel, practice their routine and songs at meetings called pan yards.
....“The NYPD was aware of and approved this area as a practice location for Heart of Steel. 1020 E. 48th Street is a private commercial lot, located in a commercial area.”
....Rubert-Schewel said that, on August 31, 2018 and extending into the morning of September 1, 2018, Heart of Steel Band was holding a pan yard event and that admission to the pan yard was free.
....He said his clients sought no profit or pecuniary gain for this event, and that some plaintiffs brought food to the Pan Yard and shared the food for free.
At about 1:50 a.m. on September 1, 2018, Rubert-Schewel said “numerous NYPD officers and police vehicles arrived at the pan yard.
....“J’Ouvert is an incredibly important cultural event for the Caribbean community, and the vast majority of participants are non-criminal and non-violent. The arrests in this case of a 40-year-old, 58-year-old, 65- and 71-year- old, while watching a steel band perform, are perfect examples of the over-policing that can accompany J’Ouvert,” he told CMC.
Replies