Postal Worker Handcuffed By Police In Brooklyn Wants 'Disciplinary Action'
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A postal worker who was handcuffed while he delivered packages on his route in Brooklyn said he wants the officers involved in the incident to be disciplined, but not fired.
Cellphone video captured the March 17 confrontation between 27-year-old Glenn Grays and four plainclothes officers and a lieutenant.
The postal worker was in the middle of his shift on Saint Patrick's Day when Grays claims an unmarked police car nearly ran him over in Crown Heights. He said he then shouted at the officers, who stopped and demanded identification.
"My ID right there on the side of the truck," Grays can be heard saying in the video.
"Let's go get your ID," an officer says.
"I'm not going nowhere," Grays responds. "I'm delivering my postal route."
The video then shows the officers telling Grays to "stop resisting" even though it doesn't appear that he is resisting.
"I'm not resisting!" Gray yells back.
Grays is then handcuffed and put in the unmarked patrol car, his mail truck left unattended. That's when the video ends.
"The only thing I think saved me is that it was on videotape," Grays told CBS News' DeMarco Morgan.
He said he tried to comply with the officers' orders.
"I've never been arrested, never received a summons. I was extremely terrified that if I didn't comply, something was going to happen to me," he said.
On the way to the precinct, Grays said he was "told to shut up a numerous amount of times."
"They rear ended the car and I wind up from the back seat, banged my left shoulder onto the driver seat and banged my face into their armrest," Grays said.
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, a former NYPD captain, released the video to the public. He said if an incident like this could happen to a postal worker, it could happen to anyone in the community.
"Those officers were extremely aggressive and I believe that they wanted him to resist," he said. "He was smart enough not to resist and I believe because of that, he's sitting here today telling his story."
The NYPD said it will review the incident, but Grays said he only wants the officers to face "disciplinary action."
"I don't want them to be jobless because they might have family, kids they need to support," he said.
Grays said he hasn't returned to work yet.
"It's sad. I thought that when I put on that uniform, that I'd be treated a little different, but it's no difference," he said. "You know, I'm just another brother with a uniform."
Grays was charged with disorderly conduct.