Police, Students In Confrontation Over Arrest

A routine stop for an open container violation escalated into a confrontation between police and students early Friday morning.

According to witnesses, Garam Sohn, SEAS ’10, was holding an open beer can when he was stopped by police on W. 114th Street near Broadway. When asked for identification, Sohn said he did not have any. Ian Crone, CC ’10, who witnessed the incident, said that the police handcuffed Sohn, threw him to the ground, and put him into the back of a police car.

Crone said that Sohn had been “noticeably upset,” but had not physically resisted the police in any way. “He wasn’t attacking the officers or [doing] anything apparently violent against them,” Crone said.

Another observer—George Cen, SEAS ’08,—said that while the police were questioning Sohn, two white students walked by carrying 40s. The officers instructed the students to cover their drinks with brown paper bags, but did not detain them.

As the incident progressed, a crowd gathered and the officers called for backup, witnesses said. Three more police cars arrived. According to Crone, one of the officers said to the crowd—composed mostly of Asian students—“Have you had too much sake tonight?”

Cen said that when one student asked a police officer why Sohn was being detained, the officer responded, “Do you understand English?”

“His friends were sort of trying to intercede on his behalf,” Crone said. “They were told rather forcefully to step back.”

Cen said that when he and other students asked for the badge number of the officer who had made the racially charged comments, she threatened them with arrest.

Sohn said that he was brought to a precinct and held in a cell for two hours. “If I asked anything, they just told me to shut up. I was trying to ask them what would happen to me, and an officer said verbatim, ‘You’re being a dick,’”

Sohn was released but charged with four misdemeanors: having an open container of alcohol, obstructing pedestrian traffic, refusing to comply to an order for dispersal, and creating a hazardous environment.

“If this was a case of racial bias, the Asian American Alliance truly condemns the incident,” said AAA spokesman David Zhou, CC ’10.

The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

The reporters can be reached at news@columbiaspectator.com