The James Blake Arrest Video Was Released And It’s Disturbing

“”

Former tennis player James Blake was tackled to the ground and handcuffed by NYPD cops this week in a case of mistaken identity and, finally, video of the incident was released.

Blake, who played on the ATP Tour for years and was standing outside his Manhattan hotel, was in NYC for the U.S. Open and allegedly met the description of a man running an identity theft ring.

After an undercover office approached Blake and arrested him, the tennis star had this to say describing the incident:

“Maybe I’m naïve, but I just assumed it was someone I went to high school with or something who was running at me to give me a big hug, so I smiled at the guy,” Blake said. Blake said the officer, who he said was not wearing a badge, picked him up and threw him down on the sidewalk, yelled at him to roll over on his face and said, “Don’t say a word.”

The brutal situation, unsurprisingly, caused the police department to release this statement following the massive mistake:

“Today James Blake was detained by police in midtown Manhattan in regards to an ongoing investigation into fraudulently purchased cell phones, after being misidentified by a cooperating witness. Once Blake was properly identified and found to have no connection to the investigation, he was released from police custody immediately. In regards to the alleged improper use of force, the Police Commissioner directed the internal affairs bureau to investigate.”

With this new footage, I’d expect that there’s going to be plenty of fallout after people see what actually went down.

[H/T The Big Lead]

Nick Dimengo avatar
Nick's a Sr. Editor for BroBible, mainly relying on his Sports Encyclopedia-like mind to write about things. He's also the co-host of the BroBible podcast "We Run This," and can be seen sweating his ass off while frequently running 10+ miles around Seattle.