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Plainclothes Cops Tackle Former Tennis Star James Blake For No Reason Whatsoever

James Blake was tackled by a cop in midtown Manhattan who mistook him for a suspect in an identity theft ring.

Former American tennis star James Blake tells the New York Daily News that he was tackled, handcuffed, and detained by five white police officers outside his midtown Manhattan hotel before making his way to the U.S. Open today. According to the News, NYPD is investigating an identity theft ring working in the area surrounding Blake's hotel—the Hyatt, which is an official hotel of the U.S. Open, a huge event in the city that the police force is presumably aware of—and cops thought he matched the description of one the suspects. So one cop sprinted at Blake, manhandled him to the ground, and handcuffed him. All without saying a word about what he was doing.

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Blake says he was answering a few questions from a tennis writer and exchanging texts with some friends when he noticed a guy running right at him.

"Maybe I'm naïve, but I just assumed it was someone I went to high school with or something who was running at me to give me a big hug, so I smiled at the guy," Blake said. Blake said the officer, who he said was not wearing a badge, picked him up and threw him down on the sidewalk, yelled at him to roll over on his face and said, "Don't say a word." Blake said he responded, "I'm going to do whatever you say. I'm going to cooperate. But do you mind if I ask what this is all about?"
An officer said, "We'll tell you. You are in safe hands." Said Blake, "I didn't feel very safe."

Blake invited the officers to check his wallet and U.S. Open credentials he was carrying on his person. After about 15 minutes these fucking cowboys figured out that they had the wrong guy. Blake seemed to handle it all pretty well, though he was obviously shaken by the attack.

He expects an apology and assurances that something is being done to the officers involved because it was "blatantly unnecessary." He added that instead of just tackling would-be suspects in the middle of midtown Manhattan "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."

Blake stopped short of calling the attack an example of racial profiling, but said race obviously played a part.

[NYDN]