Outrage as US black woman was 'forced to spend eight days in a psychiatric ward.

Outrage as US black woman was 'forced to spend eight days in a psychiatric ward because police would not believe the BMW she was driving was hers.

A black woman claims she was held against her will at a mental hospital for eight days then slapped with a $13,000 bill because a police officer didn't believe the BMW she was driving belonged to her.

Kamilah Brock, 32, sued the city earlier this year for unspecified damages and claims that her constitutional rights under the Fourth and 14th Amendments were violated and that she was a victim of racism. She is arguing that she endured 'unwanted and unwarranted intrusion of her personal integrity, loss of liberty [and] mental anguish' during and after her bizarre encounter with police last year. Brock tearfully recounted the nightmare to PIX 11 on Thursday which began when she was reportedly pulled over by NYPD on September 12 of last year as she was stopped at a traffic light in Harlem.

When an unidentified police officer asked her why her hands were not on the steering wheel she told him it was because she was dancing to her car music and that she didn't think that was a problem because she was at a red light. 'I said I was dancing, I am at a light,' Brock told PIX11.
'He asked me to get out of the car.'

The Huffington Post reports that Brock was then taken into custody and transported to the NYPD's 30th precinct where she was held for several hours but never charged with a crime. Police told her to go back to the station the next day to pick up her 2003 BMW 325CI. When Brock, a banker, returned the following day to claim her car she says the police did not believe her when she said that she was the rightful owner of the luxury vehicle. 'I just felt like from the moment I said I owned a BMW, I was looked at as a liar. They put me in handcuffs and said they just need to put me in handcuffs to take me to my car. And I said OK, whatever it's gonna take to get to my car.' 'Then EMS approached me,' she continued. 'And they said we're gonna take you to your car. And I'm like, in an ambulance? I'm going to my car in an ambulance? I'm going to my car in an ambulance? I was just so confused,' she said.

The Huffington Post reports that medical records show Brock was taken to Harlem Hospital, stripped naked, forced to take lithium, and injected with powerful sedatives. 'He held onto me and then the doctor stuck me in the arm and I was on a stretcher and I woke up to them taking my clothes off, specifically my underwear,' Brock told PIX 11. 'Then I went back out again. When I woke up the next day, I felt like I was in a nightmare. I didn't understand why that was happening to me.' The records also show that personnel at Harlem Hospital tried to make her deny that she owned a BMW, was a banker, and that President Barack Obama followed her on Twitter. Medical staff believed that Brock had Bi Polar disorder for her claims about the BMW, her job, and her social media account. Brock's lawyer Michael Lamonsoff says that his client told the truth the entire time and claims that Brock was discriminated against because she is black and that a white woman would not have had the same experience.

www.dailymail.co.uk...


So depending on your skin color depends on what you are capable of owning or was it simply jealously on part of the police officer seeing a young black woman with a better car than his?

I don't think NYC slush fund has enough cash in it to pay for this. This will cost NYC a few million.

a reply to: DeathSlayer

Earlier this summer the city claimed that Brock had been 'acting irrational, she spoke incoherently and inconsistently, and she ran into the middle of traffic on Eighth Ave' during the traffic stop with police

Did you miss that bit .

a reply to: hutch622

Selective storytelling
Standard BLM.....

So WHAT?
clareswinney.wordpress.com...

a reply to: DeathSlayer

I hope she wins big in this case. She was stripped, drugged, and placed in a psychiatric ward for more than a week. All because they didn't believe her when she went to reclaim her car. That's it. They could've easily called her employer or looked into the ownership records for the vehicle. Or her car insurance records or something.

But some police do this stuff all the time. People in the streets usually call it "taxing", where they know they have to pay a certain amount of their profits to certain cops in order for them to look the other way. Or more often, those cops will threaten them with charges if they don't randomly pay up.

originally posted by: hutch622
a reply to: DeathSlayer

Earlier this summer the city claimed that Brock had been 'acting irrational, she spoke incoherently and inconsistently, and she ran into the middle of traffic on Eighth Ave' during the traffic stop with police

Did you miss that bit .

(facepalm) That was during the initial incident. She was held for several hours and then released from custody. They only drugged her, stripped her, and sent her to a psychiatric ward when she came to pick up her car the next day. In other words, they detained her after the incident you mentioned, decided it was ok to release her, then sent her to a psychiatric ward when she came back to get her car like the police told her to do.

a reply to: DeathSlayer

that's really odd the story didnt make headlines here in the states considering it happened in harlem and is the perfect story for exposing hatecrimes against minorities, i will say this if she truly is bipolar she might be mistaken about 'whose' car she was driving and might very well have made up her story.

a reply to: enlightenedservant

Sorry man, the story doesn't add up, not to say false imprisonment does not occur, because it does. However I feel you and a few others are severely underestimating mental illness and the authority's ability and or lack thereof to deal with mental illness. I think more information is needed in this story, I do not think we are getting the whole story.

a reply to: DeathSlayer

A good buddy of mine went through a similar, (not as extreme) experience.

His ex called the police saying he was suicidal, he wasn't, and they came out to his house.

Later he went out to his car and was thrown to the ground with rifles pointed at him.

After he was mentally cleared, he received a bill from the hospital for $1200.

My point is anyone can claim that someone is mentally ill, and face no repercussions.

Just like swatting

a reply to: DeathSlayer

Damn, just realized this was already posted half a year ago.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

originally posted by: hutch622
a reply to: DeathSlayer

Earlier this summer the city claimed that Brock had been 'acting irrational, she spoke incoherently and inconsistently, and she ran into the middle of traffic on Eighth Ave' during the traffic stop with police

Did you miss that bit .

Watch everyone disregard this when they post...

originally posted by: hutch622
a reply to: DeathSlayer

Earlier this summer the city claimed that Brock had been 'acting irrational, she spoke incoherently and inconsistently, and she ran into the middle of traffic on Eighth Ave' during the traffic stop with police

Did you miss that bit .

Is something wrong with you? Does this give the city right to lock her up? Maybe this will happen to you or one of you family members, then what?

a reply to: DeathSlayer

Incoherent and inconsistent speech , sure , let her run around in the traffic .

a reply to: DeathSlayer

Sorry but this not the whole story. This simply doesn't happen in the medical/psych field.

originally posted by: TechniXcality
a reply to: enlightenedservant

Sorry man, the story doesn't add up, not to say false imprisonment does not occur, because it does. However I feel you and a few others are severely underestimating mental illness and the authority's ability and or lack thereof to deal with mental illness. I think more information is needed in this story, I do not think we are getting the whole story.

Did you miss the part where she was released both times?

First, she was released hours after she was arrested w/no charges being pressed against her. What does that say about "authority's ability and or lack thereof to deal with mental illness"? Clearly they didn't think she was a threat or was suffering from mental illness then, or they would have sent her to the psychiatric ward then.

And second, she was told to come back the next day to pick up her car. When she came back, this series of events happened. And she was still released 8 days later. So once again, what does that say about "authority's ability and or lack thereof to deal with mental illness"?" If they really believed she had a mental illness, why the sudden change after 8 days? And why not do a simple check on her employment, car ownership records, and social media account (which is what part of the case is about)?

Also, you should probably read the link in the OP. It has a lot more details, like this:

The records also show that personnel at Harlem Hospital tried to make her deny that she owned a BMW, was a banker, and that President Barack Obama followed her on Twitter.

Medical staff believed that Brock had Bi Polar disorder for her claims about the BMW, her job, and her social media account.

Brock's lawyer Michael Lamonsoff says that his client told the truth the entire time and claims that Brock was discriminated against because she is black and that a white woman would not have had the same experience.

Either way, the only way we'll get a better idea is when this finally gets settled in court.

a reply to: blacktie

that's really odd the story didnt make headlines here in the states considering it happened in harlem and is the perfect story for exposing hatecrimes against minorities,

That's exactly why it didn't make headlines here. The cops look bad enough, especially the NYPD and they do not need this kind of negative publicity. They won't let this go to court. It'll be a quiet settlement and a sealed record, with no one allowed to disclose details of the settlement. And no admission of guilt on the part of the NYPD.

originally posted by: DeathSlayer

originally posted by: hutch622
a reply to: DeathSlayer

Earlier this summer the city claimed that Brock had been 'acting irrational, she spoke incoherently and inconsistently, and she ran into the middle of traffic on Eighth Ave' during the traffic stop with police

Did you miss that bit .

Is something wrong with you? Does this give the city right to lock her up? Maybe this will happen to you or one of you family members, then what?

OK, so what do you want?

Have you missed the numbers of mass shootings lately? What about the young black man who shot a reporter and her camera man live on the air?

You know what everyone blamed for that? Not racial animus but mental illness and then everyone wondered why nothing had been done about his mental illness previously, especially given that the warning signs had been there. So, OK, now we have a case where someone points out that maybe the warning signs of mental illness are present and someone got locked up to be evaluated against her will ...

And because she is a young black woman and makes it into a story about how the police are jealous because of her race and how she has a 2003 luxury car ... in 2014 (11-year-old luxury car), now you are posting a story complaining about how no one has the right to treat her like this.

This is the double standard. Had she taken the potential mental illness and turned it into a murderous rampage ... then what would we all be saying about mental illness?

I trust every word out of this womans mouth! I mean no one could believe she was driving a 12 year old car? registration/license? Yeah who calls themselves a "banker"? More like a teller at a bank at some point and to stroke her own ego even more she decides to mention Obama follows her on twitter.....

You don't get thrown into a mental hospital just because you're black, after hearing her side (not facts, just her side) something tells me there was some sort of reason for an evalution.

a reply to: jheated5

Sort of what I was thinking. When we were car shopping, there were luxury cars that old in our price range and lower. To think that she could have one is not at all a stretch of the imagination because our price range was very modest.

originally posted by: rockintitz
a reply to: DeathSlayer

Damn, just realized this was already posted half a year ago.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I thought that story looked familiar.

originally posted by: jheated5
I trust every word out of this womans mouth! I mean no one could believe she was driving a 12 year old car? registration/license? Yeah who calls themselves a "banker"? More like a teller at a bank at some point and to stroke her own ego even more she decides to mention Obama follows her on twitter.....

You don't get thrown into a mental hospital just because you're black, after hearing her side (not facts, just her side) something tells me there was some sort of reason for an evalution.

Was she a danger to herself or the community? Since when do cops refer the mentally ill to a psych ward? The next day she comes to pick up her vehicle and she's immediately put in an ambulance, escorted to the psych ward. Why did it take 8 days for a diagnosis? Obviously, she had an early diagnosis or they wouldn't have given her the lithium. Or is lithium an SOP in psych wards.

You know who's crazy here????? The cops and medical professionals at the psych ward. The victim can claim race bias but whatever the race, this should not EVER happen to anyone unless they evidence immediate dangerous actions. And even then, have a psych doctor come and do an evaluation. Did they do that? NO.

This whole story blows my mind.