BK man accuses police of beating him over ticket

A Brooklyn business owner accused police Friday of roughing him up over a parking ticket. It happened in the 71st Precinct, the same precinct where an on-duty postal worker was arrested last month.

News 12 Staff

Apr 1, 2016, 11:28 PM

Updated 3,107 days ago

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A Brooklyn business owner accused police Friday of roughing him up over a parking ticket.
It happened in the 71st Precinct, the same precinct where an on-duty postal worker was arrested last month.
"What hurts me the most is that my children were there," says Shomari Greene, who says he was double parked on Lefferts Avenue on March 22 while waiting for his fiancee to bring a car seat.
"Just when she was on her way to get the child seat, [an] officer pulled up behind us, came to me, told me I needed to move the vehicle," Greene says, "I told him I couldn't move the vehicle right now because [there's] a 2-year-old in the back."
The officer wrote him a ticket, and Greene admits that he cursed at the officer, who then arrested him.
But the arrest didn't go smoothly. Greene says the officer put him in a headlock and used pepper spray, but police say Greene pushed the officer first.
Cellphone video a nearby barber took of the incident does not show that part of the arrest. The barber says he began recording after witnessing the officer hit Greene in the face with a handheld radio and pepper spray.
Greene's lawyer, David Zelman, likens the arrest to that of Glen Grays, the on-duty postal worker who was arrested on St. Patrick's Day by two plainclothes officers after a verbal altercation.
Greene, who has no prior criminal record, is charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and obstruction of government administration. Police say that they are not pressing assault charges, even though Greene allegedly pushed the officer.