Win compensation after police beating

Michael Tarif Warren and Evelyn Warren. Photo: Roberto Mercado

A victory was won in the struggle against police brutality on May 11 when the New York Police Department and the City of New York opted to settle a federal suit brought against them by Michael Tarif Warren and Evelyn Warren. While coming to the defense of a young man they witnessed being beaten by police, the two had been brutalized and arrested in 2007. Rather than face trial, the City will pay the Warrens a sum of $360,000.

Michael Tarif Warren is a New York attorney well known for representing victims of police brutality or their families, including Michael Stewart, Yvonne Smallwood, Sadiki “Bro. Shep” Ojore Olugbala, and the five Black teenagers falsely accused and convicted of raping “the Central Park Jogger.” (justiceforwarrens.org)

On June 21, 2007, the Warrens had stopped their car at a red light in Brooklyn, N.Y., when they witnessed NYPD officers chase a young man and then beat him in full view of passersby, including children. When Michael Tarif Warren stepped out of his car and yelled to the police to stop beating the young man, the police, including a sergeant, approached the Warrens’ car and proceed to beat Michael Tarif Warren. They then dragged him out of the car and arrested him. When Evelyn Warren, who is also a practicing lawyer, objected to what was happening, police hit her in the face and arrested her as well.

The police were not ready, however, for the response that ensued. Within hours hundreds of supporters of the two gathered at the 77th Precinct, where the Warrens had been taken, refusing to leave until the two had been released. The police were forced to relent. Months later, the criminal charges against the Warrens were dropped by the district attorney. The Warrens then filed the civil rights lawsuit against the City and the NYPD.

An email from the Warrens’ attorney, Jonathan Moore, states, “Although there is the standard no admission of liability, the amount of the settlement speaks for itself in terms of whether there was wrongdoing on the part of officers in the NYPD.”

This important victory frees Michael Tarif Warren to continue his work defending others abused at the hands of the police. He is currently representing Bro. Shaka Shakur, who was arrested after police raided his Bronx, N.Y., apartment with a trumped-up warrant. Shakur is the co-founder of the People’s Survival Program, which provides members of the Harlem, N.Y., community with much-needed services like food, clothing, and assistance in housing and health care.