NYPD Harassment Leaves Bed-Stuy Man Afraid To Leave Home: Suit

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — A Bed-Stuy man who says years of police harassment have him afraid to leave his home is suing the NYPD and the cops who targeted him, according to a new lawsuit.

The suit, filed by Mike Josie earlier this month, names more than a dozen NYPD officers who have stopped, frisked, pulled over, detained and arrested Josie and his friends within Bed-Stuy's 79th Precinct since early 2019, according to the suit.

Josie is the second of the friend group to sue the department.

"Every time the cops see them, they harass them, try to stop them and search them," his attorney Ugochukwu Uzoh told Patch. "It needs to stop."

The most recent lawsuit details three times police arrested Josie, only for him to be released or the charges to be dropped later given a lack of evidence, according to the suit. Uzoh said all three arrests were because cops believed Josie stole electric bikes or scooters.

During two incidents — in summer 2019 and in December 2020 — cops barged into Josie's home while he was sleeping and, while pointing guns at him, put him into handcuffs and took him down to the station, according to the suit.

He was arraigned in both on robbery or larceny charges that were dropped months later due to a "lack of any evidence," the suit contends.

Police ambushed Josie on a street corner at 1 a.m. during a third arrest in August 2019, the suit states. They handcuffed him and pushed him onto the ground "with their feet on his back," according to the suit.

Again, cops slapped him with larceny charges only to have the district attorney decline to prosecute given a lack of evidence Josie had committed a crime, according to the suit.

The lawsuit claims the three arrests are the most egregious incidents in a larger pattern of harassment by the cops. Each time police see Josie or his friends and family they will stop and search them, call out to them, pull them over or threaten them, according to the suit.

When asked if they have been able to determine a motivation for the harassment, Uzoh said Josie and his friends believe it's racially motivated.

"They keep saying that it is because they’re Black," Uzoh said. "I don't know of any other reason."

The harassment has grown so bad that Josie, fearing for his life, barely steps out of his house, according to Uzoh.

His friend, Eddie Hoover, who filed his lawsuit in May, has been staying in Staten Island to escape the local cops, he added. Hoover's suit also details three arrests where prosecutors either declined to pursue charges or dismissed the case.

"It's making it very difficult for them to pursue any employment — anything — to pursue their life," Uzoh said. "They’re worried about stepping out of their house or into the streets — they’re worried they’re going to be shot and killed."

When asked to respond to the claims in the suit, the NYPD declined to comment, citing pending litigation.