XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.politics.republicans, sac.politics
XPost: talk.politics.guns
From: left.wing@gmail.com
On 20 Jun 2024, Bragam posted some
news:v524lc$1u0om$3@solani.org:
> They should be tattooing
NEW YORK — Purple Heart recipient Raffique Khan still can’t believe he was
pulled over while driving his BMW in Brooklyn for no apparent reason —
then arrested for carrying a legal gun.
Sadly, he says, he can only conclude he was charged because he’s Black.
Khan, 40, retired from the U.S. Army and now working as an armed federal
environment protection specialist assigned to Fort Wadsworth on Staten
Island, has filed a federal lawsuit alleging discrimination, wrongful
arrest and a denial of his Second Amendment right to carry a firearm.
“There was no probable cause, to stop [Khan] other than he was a person of
color operating an expensive late model vehicle…” said the suit, filed in
Brooklyn Federal Court by his lawyer, Cory Morris, on May 21. A similar
suit was filed by Morris June 14 in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn.
“To be honest, I’m disappointed,” Khan, a native of Trinidad and Tobago,
told the Daily News in an interview. “I never thought I would serve and
come home to be treated in this manner. I love my country. I wasn’t born
here but what better way to pay your country than to serve. i did it
honorably.
“I could understand if i was arguing or trying to fight, being belligerent
— but it was nothing like that.”
The criminal complaint — filed after Officer Matthew Bessen, who Khan
described as white, arrested Khan last Nov. 26 in East New York — clearly
indicates that the NYPD’s own database indicates Khan has a license to
carry a firearm. The complaint said Khan can only carry the weapon while
at work, but Morris said Khan has no such restrictions on his license.
The case was dismissed in February, but Khan said the damage is done.
“Besides the embarrassment, I don’t want to run into this situation
again,” Khan said. “I thought I was doing everything the correct way. I
don’t want to sound like a saint or anything but I always felt you do the
right thing, good things will happen to you.”
Khan got a Purple Heart and Bronze Star for rescuing fellow soldiers
trapped in the wreckage caused by a suicide truck bomb that killed two
Americans and badly injured some three dozen troops in Afghanistan in
2012.
Before the car stop, he was out with family for a gathering in honor of
what have been his recently-deceased mother’s 70th birthday.
When it was over, he, a cousin and a friend got into Khan’s BMW — his
license plate adorned with a Purple Heart — and reminisced some more and
nibbled on a late-night snack.
Khan, a father of three, remembers seeing an unmarked car pass by and not
thinking much of it. When he drove off, two cops in the same car pulled
him over a few minutes later.
Khan said he was not told why he was stopped — and there is nothing in the
complaint to indicate it, either.
But Kkan, noting his “great respect” for law enforcement, said he
immediately told Bessen he was a licensed gun holder and that the weapon
was in his glove compartment.
With that, Khan said he and his passengers were ordered out of the car,
with Bessen reviewing Khan’s documents — including his carry permit and
military identification — and questioning how he got them.
“Maybe he didn’t expect a minority to have credentials like that,” Khan
said. “I did not say that to him, but I was saying that to myself. I
wanted to still give him the respect he deserves but even though I’m
asking him what is going on he didn’t explain anything to me at all.”
After about a half hour, Khan, his cousin and his friend were handcuffed
and taken to the 75th Precinct, with Khan eventually charged and the other
two let go.
Khan was released without bail — even though a prosecutor requested bail
be set at $50,000 — after more than 35 hours in custody, according to the
lawsuit, filed May 21 at Brooklyn Federal Court.
[continued in next message]
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* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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