The team of plainclothes NYPD officers who aggressively pulled a protester into an unmarked van has received more complaints than almost any other NYPD unit, Gothamist reports. Nikki Stone, 18, was arrested on Tuesday by the NYPD’s warrant squad for an earlier series of alleged vandalism incidents. She was released with a ticket the next day. The dramatic arrest was captured in a viral video that sparked outrage and comparisons to “kidnapping” tactics employed by unidentifiable federal officers in Portland.
A new data set from the Civilian Complaint Review Board, made public by ProPublica, reveals a staggering 12,000 complaints against 4,000 Warrant Section officers. In the last five years, the CCRB investigated more misconduct allegations against members of the Warrant Section than any other unit—except for Brooklyn’s 75th Precinct in East New York—and there were 263 allegations against the squad during that period. The complaints ranged from foul language to pulling out guns in the middle of the street.
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