Local Resident Claims He Was Arrested After Speaking Out Against Cops in South Slope Groping Incident

Photo by Stefano Giovannini / Via the Brooklyn PaperIf local resident Donald Harrington’s accusation is correct, you’re more likely to get arrested in this neighborhood for speaking up against the cops than for groping women.

Last month, a group of pro-active citizens caught a man who groped an unassuming 22 year-old woman on 16th street between 4th and 5th avenues. The woman fled as one would rightly assume a woman who’d just been groped would want to do. Instead of doing any real police work and looking for the victim, the two cops who showed arrived at the scene let the suspect go after 15 minutes. Since then, the two officers have been stripped of their guns and put on desk duty in different precincts.

But the story doesn’t end there. Donald Harrington, the de facto frontman for the mob of rightfully angry residents, was recently visited by police from the same precinct that the cops were removed from. 

“I heard them say my name," he told the Brooklyn Paper, "so I thought they were following up on the assault case,” he said. Instead, Harrington claims that the two officers slammed him against a car, threw his phone on the ground and arrested him for allegedly keying a neighbor's car. At least one neighbor witnessed the cop's aggressive behavior toward him.

Harrington believes this is retaliation from the local cops for the comments he made on news outlets such as The Brooklyn Paper and NY1. He denies having done anything wrong and says the charges are “completely unfounded," adding that he was in Manhattan at the time of the alleged damage to the aforementioned neighbor's car, and that surveillance footage will corroborate this.

So there you have it. Even if the charges are completely legit, it’s no less disturbing that a keyed car gets more attention by the police than a woman being groped. While Harrington got slammed against a car, cuffed and locked up overnight, a twisted pervert got off scott free. Good job, NYPD. Keep up the good work.