A police officer tased and threatened a 27-year-old Black National Guard soldier and asked if he “wanted another round” after the man complied with the law. Calvin Moreland now questions why he wasn’t seen as a brother but instead as “just another Black man in the hood.”
Moreland, also a security guard at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, told the New York Daily News he was stopped for no reason before an officer tased him.
According to Moreland, he was driving to his home in Morris Heights, a section of the Bronx, when he saw a marked police car with its lights and sirens blaring behind him. He pulled over to let the vehicle pass, but it didn’t. So Moreland proceeded to make a legal right-hand turn. But the car kept following him. Moreland pulled over into a spot near his home.
“[The officer] asked me, ‘What are you doing Why don’t you think you should yield to an emergency vehicle You didn’t see us behind you'” Moreland told the Daily News even though he did in fact attempt to yield.
He informed the cop that his father was a retired officer and that he was a peace officer. None of this mattered. He was asked to exit the vehicle.
As Moreland removed his seatbelt he reached for his cellphone to call his father and was instantly tased. Soon he was handcuffed and on his knees outside.
“Do you want another round” the officer threatened. Moreland was searched and his keys were seized. He was taken to the hospital with Taser prongs in his body and was later arraigned. He faced resisting arrest and obstruction of governmental administration.
The charges will disappear if Moreland does not have any more brushes with the law for the next six months.
But Moreland, who has filed a complaint, told the Daily News he is frustrated that the officer did not see him as a brother but as “just another Black man in the hood.”
“They used physical force on me when it wasn’t needed. It hurts,” Moreland said. “We are supposed to be in the same brotherhood. I feel disrespected since they don’t see me as a brother, just another Black man in the hood.”
The brotherhood sought by Moreland does not appear to exist. In Ohio, a white police officer made racist Facebook posts and threats directed at his interim chief, a Black woman, Tiffany Tims. Joshua Braglin, who has finally been fired, told fellow officers he would “beat that n***er to death with a banana” referring to Tims before she ever became chief fulltime.
In November, six Miami firefighters were fired this week after allegedly placing a noose over a Black lieutenant’s family photo as well as drawing sexually graphic images on photos. Among the men terminated were a captain and a lieutenant.
According to the NYPD website, Morris Heights is covered by the 46th precinct. The commanding officer is Inspector Wilson Aramboles who is Black. But as demonstrated in the Starbucks incident in Philadelphia, having a Black person at the helm does not combat years of systemic racism. Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross is Black, and after being with the department for nearly three decades, he initially said his officers did “absolutely nothing wrong.”
