Kelly: No Need To Investigate Alleged Cop-on-Cop Racial Profiling

In late September, two black detectives and one Pakistani detective were going door-to-door in Gravesend, Brooklyn, canvassing residents to investigate a possible hate crime. They were dressed in suits, not uniforms, and not one of them is white, so naturally someone assumed they must be pretending to be police officers. The Shomrim Jewish Community patrol raced to the scene, and 911 was called. When the detectives heard the call over the radio they identified themselves to the dispatcher, but a fight almost broke out when local cops arrived.

Two of the detectives showed their IDs to Officer Craig Malamed, who then insisted that the other black detective, who was waiting in the car, produce his ID. This detective, Stephon Garland, then called Malamed, who is white, a "fucking dick," and the two officers had to be held back from fisticuffs in the street. And yet that's exactly where Commissioner Ray Kelly thinks they should have settled things, instead of filing an annoying official complaint.

To try to ease tensions, Kelly met Friday with the Guardians Association, which represents black officers, the Desi Society of South Asian-American officers and the NYPD Muslim Society. But a source tells the Daily News, "The commissioner couldn't understand why the incident wasn't handled in the street and why the police officers and the detectives had to be subjected to official interrogations." Garland now faces disciplinary charge for cursing at Malamed and a sergeant, but a lawyer for the detectives claims that the local cops were guilty of racial profiling.