Video: 4 Cops Forcefully Arrest Black Brooklyn Mailman

Pictured: Eric Adams was joined by Brooklyn mailman Glenn Grays and his mother at Brooklyn Borough Hall on Tuesday. Photos by John V. Santore

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN, NY — The recent arrest of an on-duty U.S. Postal Service (USPS) employee in Crown Heights was unjustified, racially motivated and “could have been another Eric Garner situation," Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said at a Tuesday press conference.

Glenn Grays, 27, was arrested by four plainclothes officers on March 17 on President Street, Adams said.

Prior to the arrest, Grays was nearly hit by an unmarked police vehicle as he exited his USPS truck, he said.

Grays then “made comments, as any New Yorker would do,” Adams said — prompting the four officers in the vehicle, including one lieutenant, to jump out of their car and surround him on the sidewalk.

A cellphone video recorded by a bystander shows Grays, in full postal uniform, being questioned and arrested on President Street as his postal truck idles nearby.

At the beginning of the video, Grays, standing in a doorway, is approached by the officers, who ask for his ID.

"My ID's right there on the side of the truck," Grays says.

"Let's go get your ID," an officer says, motioning to the truck. But Gray declines, saying that he is delivering his packages. Shortly afterward, the officers begin to handcuff him.

One officer can be heard telling Grays to "stop resisting" as he is being handcuffed.

"I'm not resisting," Grays says in a frustrated tone.

"Yes, you are," the officer says. "Stop resisting."

A second officer says to Grays, "You're going to get hurt unless you give me your f*cking hand."

"Get off of me, yo," Grays says.

"Lawsuit, man, lawsuit," an off-camera witness says repeatedly.

The borough president, a former NYPD captain himself, said Tuesday that Grays' arrest could have targeted “any other person of color in that community.”

Instead of de-escalating the situation, Adams said, the lieutenant at the scene allowed it to become dangerously tense.

Grays has not been charged with a crime, according to court records. However, Adams said he was issued a summons to appear in court.

Adams is calling for an internal NYPD investigation into all four officers involved, and is asking that they no longer be allowed to patrol the streets of Brooklyn without wearing their uniforms.

An NYPD spokesman would not confirm Adams' account of the incident. “The matter is under internal review," the spokesman said.

Grays was present at Tuesday's press conference but did not speak. He wiped away tears while the recording of his arrest played on a big-screen TV at Borough Hall.

His mother, Sonya Sapp, said the arrest made her fear for the safety of her five other children.

“I’m just hurt,” Sapp said. “I raised [Glenn] to be humble. If the cop could have humbled himself, it would have been a lot easier.”

Michael Thomas, who identified himself at the press conference as a mentor to Grays, called not for more NYPD training, but for officers to be held accountable for the training they've already received.

Adams said he believes most Brooklyn police officers do serve the community honorably, and that NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton have improved upon police instruction and conduct. However, he said “their message must get down to the street” and be implemented by officers in positions of authority.

“This is a relic of the past,” he said of Grays’ arrest.