8122: Driving While Black—In A Cab.

From The New York Daily News…

Hot 97 and Kiss FM executive Terrence Battle says NYPD racially profiled him with frisk

By Rocco Parascandola
Daily New Police Bureau Chief

A manager at popular radio stations Hot 97 and Kiss FM says cops ordered him out of a cab and frisked him right in front of his Brooklyn home just because he’s black.

Terrence Battle, creative services manager at the stations, said the incident on Saturday left him feeling humiliated and furious.

“It was outrageous,” Battle said. “But the sad part about it is it’s an everyday occurrence. I can’t say this is true for all police officers, but dealing with these officers, I was obviously considered a suspect.”

After a late night out at a Manhattan comedy club, the 37-year-old Battle took the subway to Brooklyn and then hailed a livery cab.

When the driver stopped to drop Battle at his home in Bedford-Stuyvesant, three plainclothes cops from the 81st Precinct got out of their unmarked car, he said.

“I’m thinking, ‘This may be about something the driver did — a broken taillight or something like that,’” Battle said. “They ask him if everything is okay and he goes, ‘Yeah.’ Then they turn their attention to me and ask me to get out of the car.

“They said it was a routine stop, nothing personal.”

Battle said he told the two officers and a sergeant that he lived there and had done nothing wrong.

“I’m sitting there, I’m a 6-4-1/2 black man, and I’m thinking it could get bad real quick,” he said. “I’m being very, very careful. I had a recorder in my bag. I thought about trying to get it out, but I was scared to move.”

Eventually, Battle got out of the car and let police frisk him, search his bag and jot down his personal information.

The NYPD said the officers stopped the livery because it had a decal that allows police to stop the car at any time to ensure the driver’s safety.

Cops said the partition was open, suggesting a robbery, and that Battle matched the description of a man — black, 6 feet tall and 250 pounds — wanted in eight robberies in Bed-Stuy and East New York.

But Battle, who is 280 pounds, said police mentioned only the decal program. He has one out-of-state arrest in his past; it is sealed.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly credited stop-and-frisks with keeping crime low and denied police engage in racial profiling. Cops make arrests only in about 12% of stops, and critics have said the policy unfairly targets black and Hispanic men.

Battle has filed a complaint with the Internal Affairs Bureau and with the Civilian Complaint Review Board.

He said he’ll use the experience to explain to his sons, 11 and 13, how to deal with police.

“Two years ago, they were stopped coming home from their grandmother’s house and questioned for no reason,” he said. “They were just kids, playing around, doing nothing wrong.”