A few weeks ago, I mentioned the case of Javier Payne, a 14-year-old from New York City who was nearly killed when a New York Police Department officer smashed him through the window of a Bronx cigar shop while he was handcuffed. Now comes word that Bronx District Attorney Ken Johnson is investigating the case.
For those who missed it, on May 17 Javier and a friend had just come out of the Hookah Spot on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx when two NYPD officers stopped and questioned them about an altercation with a man on the street. They were both arrested and handcuffed.
Javier’s family then says that at one point, one of the officers smashed Javier’s face through the store’s window. He suffered severe cuts to his face, and glass shards sliced open his chest and punctured one of his lungs. He had to undergo several hours of surgery to remove glass from his chest and lungs, and was released from the hospital on May 20 after spending four days in intensive care.
On Thursday, Javier’s mom, Cherita, and his older sister, Christina, met with members of Johnson’s office and received assurances that the case is being taken seriously and will be fully investigated. The Paynes are being represented by Sanford Rubenstein, who is best known as the man who represented Abner Louima after several NYPD officers beat and sodomized him in 1997. In 2001, Rubenstein helped win an $8.75 million settlement from the NYPD–the largest such settlement in NYPD history at the time–for what happened to Louima.
The meeting with the DA’s office was the culmination of almost two weeks of efforts to bring attention to what appears to be one of the most egregious acts of police brutality in recent memory. On May 24, Javier appeared with Al Sharpton, whose National Action Network has taken up the Paynes’ cause. At that meeting, the Paynes revealed new details on what happened to Javier.
Javier’s family says that when Javier and his friend came out of the store, NYPD Sergeant Eliezer Pabon and another officer arrested them for beating up a 39-year-old man after asking him for a cigarette. At one point after being cuffed, Javier talked smart to Pabon. According to the (New York) Daily News, surveillance video shows Pabon shoved Javier from behind, sending him crashing face-first through the window. Javier, who was sitting in a wheelchair with a large bandage on his forehead, never spoke at the conference.
However, during the event, he lifted his shirt to reveal a gash on the left side of his chest; doctors needed 50 staples to close it. That would had been so severe that one of the paramedics had to hold it closed in the ambulance–an action that likely saved Javier’s life. Sharpton and the family have demanded a grand jury investigation into the incident. They maintain that whatever Javier may have done, Pabon’s actions were completely out of bounds. Sharpton said,
“We cannot have a city where policemen come and shove handcuffed children through windowpanes.”
New York City Councilman Ritchie Torres, who represents the area, is also outraged. He told the Juvenile Justice Information Institute that he only learned about the incident online.
Torres also said that it took four days for anyone from the NYPD to give him further details, and it was another day before senior NYPD leadership briefed him on the incident. Being a man of color himself, Torres identifies a lot with Javier. In what stands as a major understatement, Torres said,
“I don’t think there’s a bigger betrayal of the public trust than when police brutalize citizens.”
On May 23, Pabon was placed on modified duty pending an Internal Affairs investigation. Until the investigation is complete, he won’t be allowed to wear his badge or gun. Edward Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, maintains that Pabon never shoved Javier through the window, though he admitted he hasn’t seen the video yet.
It seems hard to believe that Javier went through the window on his own, though. For one thing, Javier weighs only 89 pounds. For another thing, the shop’s owner says that Javier and his friend weren’t doing anything wrong in his store. Even in the unlikely event Javier went through the window on his own, the arresting officers’ actions after Javier was injured were inexcusable. They called in Javier’s injury with a protocol used for drunks, not pediatric injuries–costing Javier precious minutes. Paramedics had to beg officers to remove the handcuffs so they could tend to Javier’s injuries.
Simply put, this is an outrage. If it does turn out that Javier was shoved through the window–and it certainly looks like he was–then whether Pabon gets his job back should be the least of his worries.
Darrell Lucus is a radical-lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.
edited by tw
