A livestreamer in New York working for City College’s The Campus Magazine confronted police officers with public complaints made against them during a pro-Palestine protest on Tuesday after being provided the information by viewers.
“ccny campus magazine livestream is genuinely incredible, they’re reading out police badge numbers + names and getting people in the chat to search complaints filed against them, then reading the complaints back out loud to the cops ????” posted @vivafalastin on X.
Protests on college campuses across the U.S. have kicked off over the past week following calls for universities to divest from weapons companies supporting Israel’s war in Gaza, where the death toll has risen to just under 35,000 people in the past 7 months, according to the Gaza health ministry.
The Campus Magazine didn’t respond to questions about whom was filming, but the individual collected badge numbers from numerous New York Police Department (NYPD) officers on West 139th Street, across the road from Compton-Goethals Hall on Amsterdam Ave.
One cop who engaged in a back-and-forth with the cameraman was Detective Specialist Raymond D. Williams, who wears badge number 6728.
“Raymond - lawsuit settlements, $27,500?” asked the livestreamer.
“There you go, that’s better,” one cop cracked.
“And also another one that was $7,250. So another one also that was $40,000. So $27,500 plus $72,500. I believe that’s $100,000 and then $40,000… so $140,000 total?” the livestreamer inquired.
“I don’t know. If that’s what it adds up to?” the officer responded with an ironic shrug.
“Yeah, yeah, that’s what those numbers add up to. Yes, $140,000 total in lawsuits.” the livestreamer said while the cops laughed among themselves.
The livestreamer then asked the cop if that was less than his salary.
“Oh yeah, it’s less," the cop replied.
“Williams took a video of [his] groin with a colleague’s bodycam,” the livestreamer went on, reading off the description of one of the complaints against him.
“Accurate,” the officer deadpanned, causing the surrounding officers to break out laughing. “Guilty.”
According to a report by the New York Post, Williams was suspended in 2018 for using another police officer’s unattended body cam to record a 32-second video of his exposed testicles. The other cop saw the footage but didn’t report it. It only came to the department’s attention when a civilian employee came across the footage, and Williams was suspended from the department after a hearing.
Posters on X quickly clipped the moment, where Williams boasted about having “32 suspension days, [and] 3 transfers. Guilty.”
While the livestreamer conversed with the cops, some commenters warned them to stop communicating with the NYPD.
“pls b careful,” commented one.
“stop talking to the NYPD,” added another.
“Laughing and smiling is so psychotic,” one person reacted.
“they won’t hesitate arresting you,” warned another.
“You think it’s funny?” a woman asked Williams off-camera.
“I don’t… I paid the price, for doing something stupid, right? Isn’t that what it’s about? Accountability. Isn’t that what it’s about? It’s about accountability,” Williams answered with a smirk.
Williams’ other payout settlements came from allegations of abuse of authority.
In 2014, he was accused of throwing to the ground and handcuffing a man named Noah Smith who was walking out of a building on Lexington Ave in Brooklyn without telling him while he was being arrested. The city settled that case for $27,500 in 2016.
A $72,500 settlement came in 2017 over a Jan. 31st, 2012 incident where Williams and two other cops came to a house where there’d been a disagreement. Curtis Sean Dacy said he’d laid down on the floor to avoid provoking the cops. But Williams and two other officers handcuffed him, carried him out into the hallway, and started stomping on him, kicking him, and beating him with a belt before dragging him down a staircase until he was “bleeding profusely.”
The livestreamer also called out cops for not turning on their bodycams, leading posters online to call out the police tactic.
“No lie, there's a high correlation between cops that have complaints against them and turned off bodycams,” posted @mcbc.
“Oh, I don’t think it’s hard to believe the worst ones turn off their cameras,” added @seachickenycats. “???? How convenient for them it’s even possible to turn them off!”
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