Video Snippet Shows Frightened Fritos Delivery Person Handcuffed And Detained By Roosevelt Island Public Safety Officers Last Saturday At Bread & Butter Deli In A Dispute That Began Over Parking Spot - What Really Happened?

A Roosevelt Island Tipster reported last Saturday evening May 7:

Have you heard anything about an encounter this morning, between our PSOs and someone making a delivery to the Deli, that included the PSOs handcuffing the delivery person because they were “illegally parked” — or more likely couldn’t find a “legal” parking spot?

Another Tipster provided this brief video clip showing a portion of the interaction between a Frito Lay truck delivery person and 3 Roosevelt Island Public Safety Department (PSD) Officers that took place at the Bread & Butter Deli Saturday morning approximately 10:15.

The May 7 RIOC Public Safety Report describes the incident as follows: 

05/07/22 – 0950 – 579 Main Street – Disorderly Conduct – PSD responded – Summonsed issued.

On Sunday morning May 8, I asked Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) PSD Chief Kevin Brown:

A resident informed me of an alleged incident at the Bread & Butter Deli of PSD officers roughing up and handcuffing a delivery person. Is that true? Also, the incident started because the delivery person was illegally parked. Is that true? Does RIOC have any comment on this important issue of community concern?

I also asked Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) President Rossana Ceruzzi and Public Safety Committee Chair Erin Feely-Nahem if they knew anything about this incident. Both Ms Ceruzzi and Ms Feeley-Nahem have an extensive record of monitoring and investigating allegations of improper behavior by the Roosevelt Island PSD while maintaining an open dialogue and good relationship with the PSD leadership. Neither had heard of the incident but promised to immediately look into it and contact PSD Chief Brown. {Correction and update, Ms Feely-Nahem was aware of the incident at this time, Ms Ceruzzi was not}

I followed up on Monday with a second email to Chief Brown:

I’m following up on yesterday’s email below about the PSD incident with female delivery driver at the Bread/Butter Deli. 

I want to be accurate in reporting what happened and give PSD’s side of the story. 

Will Rioc respond with a statement on the incident?

Later on Monday I saw Chief Brown on Main Street. He told me a response to my questions would be coming from RIOC later that day.

 

On Monday evening, RIOC sent out an email advisory saying:

Subject: Parking Incident

The Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC) takes all public safety incidents of this nature very seriously and we will conduct a thorough investigation into this matter. A preliminary review of the incident has been conducted, however we will continue to review all allegations/complaints, along with any additional video footage.

I followed up asking Chief Brown:

Was there any arrest, summons or ticket issued to the driver in this incident?

There was no reply.

Yesterday, May 11, based upon my understanding of the incident at that time, I asked Chief Brown:

I am preparing an article to be published today about the incident at the Deli on Saturday Morning between the Frito Lay Delivery person and PSD Officers.

In the interests of accuracy and timely informing the Roosevelt Island community of an important issue of concern, I am sending you my understanding of what happened. If it is incorrect or needs clarification please let me know.

My understanding of the Bread & Butter Deli incident Saturday morning at about 10 AM is as follows.

The female Delivery Driver initially parked her vehicle on Main Street next to the barrier in front of the Deli. A PSD Officer told her to move the vehicle to 560 breezeway which she did.

The Delivery Driver entered the Deli and was making her delivery.

Shortly thereafter, at least 3 PSD Officers entered the Deli and instructed the Delivery Driver to move her Truck out of the 560 Breezeway to somewhere else.

She asked the Officers to let her finish the deli delivery before moving the Truck. The PSD Officers refused to allow her to finish the deli delivery and told her to immediately move the Truck. The delivery driver did not immediately exit the deli to move her truck.

The incident then escalated to what is shown in the video. 3 PSD Officers roughly handcuffing the delivery Driver and shoving and pressing her against the Deli refrigerator.

At least 4 other PSD Officers were nearby outside the deli entrance.

The Delivery Driver was taken to PSD offices in handcuffs and placed in a holding cell for approximately 40 minutes before being released.

The Delivery Driver was issued a summons for disorderly conduct. Were there any other charges? Was there an arrest?

The Deli owners believe RIOC PSD is discriminating against them in not allowing their Delivery Drivers to park nearby while at the same time allowing delivery drivers for other stores the courtesy of parking nearby.

Does RIOC dispute this account of what happened?

Also, did a PSD Officer threaten to use a Taser on the delivery person if she did not comply?

In the interest of accuracy and informing the Roosevelt Island community of what happened, will RIOC comment on the circumstances of this incident.

Thank you.

No answer but later that day I saw Chief Brown who told me there were errors in my understanding of the incident. He added that he would like to comment but was waiting for approval by RIOC President Shelton Haynes. 

Still no reply as of this evening.

More information has come to light in the last 24 hours. Based upon knowledgeable sources, this is what appears to have happened.

The Frito Lay truck (This picture is not from May 7 Incident)

delivery person is relatively new working on Roosevelt Island. On Tuesday, May 3, she parked the delivery truck by the portable metal barrier on Main Street in front of the Bread & Butter Deli.

A Public Safety Officer told the driver she could not park in that area and instructed her to park in the 576 Breezeway (also known as 560 Breezeway) which she did.

Upon returning to Roosevelt Island on Saturday morning May 7, she parked the delivery truck in the 576 Breezeway where she had previously been told by Public Safety Officers to park. It was raining as she completed unloading her deliveries from the truck. A Public Safety Officer approached her and told her to move the truck from the 576 Breezeway. She asked to be allowed to bring her deliveries across the street to the Bread & Butter Deli before moving the truck. What happened next is unclear but she did not move the truck.

As she entered the deli with her deliveries, the 3 PSD Officers followed her inside and called for back up from other Officers. The confrontation shown in the video soon began.

According to a statement today from RIRA Public Safety Committee Chairs Erin Feely-Nahem and Shirley Coley:

The Roosevelt Island Residents Association Public Safety Committee (RIRA PSC) is carrying out independent, detailed inquiries into an apparent case of Public Safety Department (PSD) harassment and abuse, under the direction of recently promoted Lt. Barry Hazelwood and a team led by Officer Brian Ortiz against a part-time delivery worker, Tonnek Greene, who was doing her job under the difficult and stressful circumstances of Main Street traffic congestion and limited parking, for the Bread and Butter deli, during rainy conditions. 

The Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC), which is the “civic” authority over the PSD, issued a brief, anodyne statement that also pledges “to conduct a thorough investigation,” evidently after a “preliminary review” conducted internally, that was not made public. PSD Chief Kevin Brown has also committed to an investigation in discussions with RIRA PSC leaders. We welcome this and expect transparency, objectivity, and justice. 

Nevertheless, RIRA PSC has no intention of deferring to the RIOC or PSD investigations as we responsibly carry out our independent inquiries and interviews in the interests of Roosevelt Island residents, workers, and visitors, but hope we can reach amicable solutions together. 

We are convinced that the facts revealed so far, including limited video footage, and witness accounts that were brought to our attention, and will be documented, as well as simple common sense, strongly indicate that this young Black woman was harassed, then manhandled while doing her job delivering food commodities to a prominent Island business. The PSD detained in a cell this humiliated and traumatized worker, who says that over the course of the day’s events had urinated on herself. 

The escalation demonstrated by the Officers was not what Roosevelt Islanders expect from Community Policing, and we believe the concrete circumstances resulted in an unacceptable crossing over the line into law enforcement abuse and violence. In no way can this be justified as “anti-crime.” This was anti-worker harassment, and subsequently Ms. Greene has been issued a criminal court summons for “disorderly conduct” and a traffic court violation VTL 1102, charging her with failure to comply with the lawful order of a Peace Officer, all because she parked in the breezeway spot that she had been directed to park in during her prior delivery to Roosevelt Island by Public Safety Officers, and during this last delivery, when asked to move the truck she was unable to do so at that moment as the delivery and product had already been removed from the truck and were on the ground, and could have been stolen if she left them unattended. 

We believe that the escalation of this incident could have been avoided. A parking violation, which is not endangering other motorists, doesn’t warrant this extreme reaction. Abusive actions and unjustified violence must have consequences!

Stay tuned. Will update when more information become available. 

It would be very helpful if RIOC would publicly comment on their version of the event. 

UPDATE 9:25 PM - RIRA Public Safety Committee member Frank Farance has a different perspective on the deli incident. According to Mr Farance:

I've heard about an incident last Saturday involving a Frito Lay truck driver and Public Safety Officers, including a 12-second video that appears to show three Public Safety Officers, surrounding the driver in the back aisle of Bread and Butter Deli, you can hear the driver say "I am a woman" and "You can't lock me up for this", and PSD officers saying "Stop! Stop! I'm telling you to stop!".  It appears they are facilitating an arrest with handcuffs.

The incident involved the parking of the delivery truck and PSD's request to move the truck to a different spot in the 560 breezeway.  The driver did not comply, PSD arrested the driver, and she was let go later.  My understanding is that the whole event lasted about 40-60 minutes from start to finish.

I disagree with the reporting from the RIRA Public Safety Committee Co-Chairs Erin Feely-Nahem and Shirley Coley, and I'm disappointed in the discussion that occurred at Wednesday's (May 11) RIRA Common Council meeting, as there seemed to be a group-think and an unwillingness to understand logically what did and might have happened.  The statement issued by the RIRA PSC Co-Chairs is early for the kind of confidence expressed in their reporting when there is still much to be understood.

I am interested in a fair, unbiased, informed, and complete (to the extent practicable) understanding of what happened, and to make appropriate recommendations.

One area of long-time concern is a split within the RIRA Public Safety Committee on direction.  Surely, most everyone can agree there were problems with residents and visitors being gratuitously arrested, many with excessive force, when Keith Guerra was PSD Chief.  The concerns were participated in the Anthony Jones incident in 2013.  Mr. Jones's mother came to me to ask for help, as her son was handcuffed to a gurney at the hospital.  I broke the news to the community, and I asserted that the PSD officers engaged in unlawful use of deadly force.  Also, I helped other residents get their convictions undone or cases dismissed as I did frame-by-frame video analysis and compared it with the police reports - debunking the charges.  RIRA PSC members (including myself) had been tracking many of the issues with PSD during the years PSD Chief Guerra led the force.  The RIRA PSC, as led by Erin Feely-Nahem, was very effective in getting Guerra fired and a new Chief, Jack McManus, to shepherd in a new type of "community policing" that was welcome and effective and, largely, continues to this day.  RIRA PSC meets monthly and engages with the PSD leadership, and it's been a very effective and productive effort - with consistent community participation and now with Co-Chairs leading the RIRA PSC effort.

There areas where RIRA PSC and I differ, and this can be seen in how we approach this incident.  Back in 2013, there was much concern over the Rights of the Individual, and we fought for that.  However, there were other incidents later that summer and fall - a near riot on July 4, and late night noise outside the Deli, which disturbed my neighbors in Island House, and neighbors across the street in Eastwood.  There seem to be a hesitation for PSD to address the noise (or riot) problem as surely it would involve either summons or arrest.  As I pointed out in video that summer/fall, PSD officers were ignoring the noisemakers, yet standing right next to them.  Then, we discovered that RIOC and Hudson Related (via Main Street Retail Master Lease) were collaborating to allow complaints against the Deli as RIOC and HR were negotiating a new lease for the Deli, i.e., PSD was allowing disruptive noise so that RIOC and HR would be in a better negotiating position over the Deli lease - I reported this in the WIRE newspaper.  These wrong judgements and conflicts of interest ignore the Rights of Society, e.g., allow Island House and Eastwood residents to sleep without noise.  The RIRA PSC focused only upon Rights of the Individual and I (and others) said we should strike a balance between the Rights of the Individual vs. the Rights of Society - that is our culture in the US.

The RIRA PSC Co-Chairs only look at this one side.  There is an important other side.

As a brief background, I graduated from NYPD's Police Academy.  As community leaders, NYPD finds it important to educate us because, sometimes, it's really important to understand several sides of an incident, including law enforcement, and that can be most beneficial for the community.

Also, I am trained by NYPD in traffic control and I've worked many events, including Roosevelt Island.  In my experience, there have been cases where motorists are non-compliant and I ask an officer to intervene.  The officer's response, typically, is "You should immediately comply or I'm going to arrest you" - some officers add colorful language for emphasis.

I mention the traffic control because a key point in traffic control is: there's a possibility of injuring and killing people, it is very fast-paced, and safety is the number one priority.  Both motorist safety and (especially) pedestrian safety are important.  In general, IF you (as traffic control) permit it, THEN you are responsible for the consequences.  Here's a relevant example: double parking a delivery truck in front of the Deli is dangerous because it is close to the 560 Breezeway and crosswalk, there are blind areas for traffic, e.g., a bus cutting over two lanes to the left (with oncoming traffic) and going through the crosswalk on the wrong side of the road.  Thus, double parking in front of the Deli is discouraged for traffic safety (pedestrian and motorist) whereas double-parking a truck across of Wholesome Foods is less of a problem.  It is NOT that PSD likes Wholesome Foods and dislikes the Deli, it's that they are two different traffic management problems with the Deli having more safety issues.

As a community, we also care about our residents in the crosswalks, the ongoing complaints about motorists, an almost tragic accident with a car and child by the school, and so on.  Thus, if you see PSD's main concern about safety is addressing this complex traffic management problem (i.e., what us residents want them to do), then it might be easier to see PSD's focus.  Or said differently, if - GOD FORBID - a child were injured and killed because of a delivery truck's unsafe placement, we'd all be screaming about PSD's poor judgement.

In other words, we care about the Rights of Society, along with the Rights of the Individual.

Also, this is NOT about a parking ticket gone wrong, this is about a safety issue that, according to reporting, PSD was trying to address.

Here the delivery driver was not complying with PSD's instructions to address the safety issue, i.e., they wanted her in a different spot.  As an individual, I can't imagine not complying with law enforcement's directive concerning me and my vehicle - I'd image that non-compliance would garner me an arrest, a criminal complaint, a DMV moving violation, and having my car towed.  According to the RIRA PSC Co-Chairs' report, the delivery driver said she parked in one spot earlier in the week, but now that PSD wants her in a different spot, and she feels that she doesn't need to comply with that.  On Saturdays there are 600 vehicles per hour at the 10-11 AM time, i.e., a vehicle every 6 seconds, and there is a farmer's market with lots of pedestrians moving in and out of the Main Street roadway.  The delivery driver has very faulty thinking with that kind of reasoning: it was good a couple days ago, so it must also be good today (wrong!).  The truck driver asked PSD if she could stay as she was almost done, but PSD officers denied that request - and I'm sure PSD officers would have watched her delivery stock so it didn't get stolen while she was repositioning the truck.  Sure, her request might be reasonable from her perspective, but not the PSD officers as they have a bigger problem.  As I said: if you permit the safety hazard, then you own the results.

I believe the RIRA PSC Co-Chair report is misguided on the arrest itself.  It is my belief, based upon the traffic conditions, the video, and reporting from PSD, that the determination to arrest the driver occurred outside, possibly while the driver walking away.  Now with the order to arrest her, I believe the video is showing the officers facilitating arrest.  As I learned from the NYPD Police Academy, 2-3 officers facilitating the arrest is safer than one officer facilitating the arrest.  And once the situation started to escalate, the officers called for back-up - again, normal safety operations.

I also point out that this was not an individual driver (some cranky motorist), but a commercial operation where the driver is part of a fleet.  I cannot imagine that the organization (Frito Lay) or its parent (PepsiCo) believe that it is okay for their drivers to ignore the direction of law enforcement.  In fact, I'm guessing that any operation like this (via corporation management or insurance) would want these kinds of drivers NOT operating a truck - it's unsafe and inappropriate behavior on behalf of a corporation.  It is likely the driver was trained: if you don't follow the direction of law enforcement, it is an immediate termination or reassignment.

There are still many unknowns.  We need confirmation that the determination to arrest occurred outside, and we need to understand what de-escalation techniques (if any) were employed.

In summary, IF you see that a possible outcome of the dangerous placement of a vehicle might mean injury or death to a child, and your reaction to that would be outrage, condemnation, and investigation, THEN your appropriate response is to be supportive of PSD using appropriate judgement, motorist/pedestrian direction, and enforcement to make sure hazardous conditions are mitigated.  This is a focus on the Rights of Society, but also balanced with the Rights of the Individual.

UPDATE 5/13 - If you have any information on this incident, please contact Roosevelt Islander Online and RIRA Public Safety Committee Co-Chair Erin Feely-Nahem.

UPDATE 7:40 PM - The May 11 RIRA Common Council meeting discussed the incident. Here's what happened.