On Wednesday, former tennis player James Blake was injured when an undercover police officer slammed him to the ground outside a Manhattan hotel in a case of mistaken identity, the New York Daily News reports.
"In my mind there's probably a race factor involved, but no matter what there's no reason for anybody to do that to anybody," Blake, who is black, told the Daily News. "You'd think they could say, 'Hey, we want to talk to you. We are looking into something.' I was just standing there. I wasn't running. It's not even close [to being okay]. It's blatantly unnecessary."
Blake, 35, was waiting outside the Grand Hyatt for a car to take him to the U.S. Open when he says a man charged at him, then threw him down on the sidewalk. He was not wearing a badge, Blake said, and wouldn't tell him what was going on. Eventually other officers came up, and Blake was told it was a fraud investigation. He told them to check his license in his pocket, and once the cops realized they had the wrong guy, they apologized, Blake said, except for the first officer who tackled him. Blake estimates he was handcuffed for 15 minutes, and suffered a cut to his left elbow and has bruising on his left leg.
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In a statement, the NYPD said once Blake was "properly identified and found to have no connection to the investigation, he was released from police custody immediately." A police source told the Daily News the officers were investigating a credit card fraud operation, and thought Blake was a suspect wanted for using a fake credit card to buy a cell phone. Blake called the incident "definitely scary and definitely crazy," and said at first he didn't want to go public with the story, but decided he wanted to bring awareness to the use of excessive force. "I have resources to get to the bottom of this," he said. "I have a voice. But what about someone who doesn't have those resources and doesn't have a voice? The real problem is that I was tackled for no reason and that happens to a lot of people who don't have a media outlet to voice that to."
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