Joseph “Jazz” Hayden says NYPD hits sour notewith Uptown stop-and-frisks
Hayden says arrest on weapons charge was 'retaliation' for filming police stop-and-frisks; Harlemites plan demonstration to pressure DA to drop charges
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Thursday, September 13, 2012, 4:00 AM
Updated: Thursday, September 13, 2012, 4:00 AM
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Jefferson Siegel for New York Daily News
Joseph "Jazz" Hayden outside Manhattan Criminal Court. Hayden has often filmed police officers performing "stop and frisk" operations, and contends one such arrest was in retliation for that.
Joseph “Jazz” Hayden has short and long explanations as to why, already facing a possible prison sentence, he continues to film city police making stop-and-frisks in Harlem.
“All my life, I have had this thing against bullies,” said Hayden. “I don’t like them. I guess I have the little’s man’s complex.
“This is not the way we want our children to grow up, and not the way we want Harlem to be.”
That’s the short answer.
The long one involves a dispassionate analysis of Harlem as an urban battleground of sorts, with Mayor Bloomberg, Police Commissioner Kelly and the police force at their command on one side and young black and Hispanic males on the other.
Around 10 a.m. today supporters who either agree with Hayden or defend his right to film police at work are expected to join a demonstration outside the Manhattan District Attorney’s offices at 100 Centre St. The rally is aimed at pressuring DA Cyrus Vance to drop weapons charges against Hayden which could put the 71-year-old in jail for as long as 18 years.
Hayden was arrested Dec. 2, 2011 after police found a baseball bat and a knife in his car following a traffic stop.
Hayden and his attorneys, Sarah Kunstler — daughter of famed civil liberties lawyer the late William Kunstler — and Gideon Oliver, of the National Lawyer’s Guild, say the charges are trumped up.
The baseball bat was a 13-inch long, commemorative edition commonly given out as souvenirs by professional baseball teams, Hayden said, and the knife was frozen shut and could not be opened when prosecutors and defense attorneys examined it recently.
“They got the knife out of the property room and could not open it for five minutes,” Hayden said. “When they finally opened it a screw holding it together fell out. If we had not asked to view the evidence, that might have happened in front of the jury and ended this case.”
More importantly, Hayden said, the traffic stop that prompted his arrest was in retaliation for his filming those same cops when they conducted a July 2011 stop-and-frisk outside Harlem’s Seville Lounge on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. at 128th St.
You can see that stop-and-frisk, and dozens of others Hayden has filmed, on his website, Hayden and the policemen can be heard having several verbal exchanges, but he was not arrested.
“I am not a soft guy,” Hayden insisted. “I studied three martial arts. I can handle myself. I don’t need an inoperable knife to make me feel safe and secure.”
Hayden has been arrested some 22 times, according to published reports, and has served several prison terms. The first was in 1957, when he was 16, and was arrested outside his Harlem building for carrying more than a dozen packets of heroin.
Later, he did 12 years on a manslaughter charge, and was transferred out of Attica state prison two weeks before the infamous 1971 riot there — he had been one of the inmate organizers.
Hayden’s case has become a cause celébre Uptown, with local politicians, ministers and residents rallying to it. More than 2,000 people have signed an on-line petition demanding that the charges against him be dropped, and an untold number of others have joined a letter writing campaign to Vance’s office asking the same.
Hayden is perturbed that Vance, who — while running for Manhattan DA — sat for an interview with Hayden, a former producer for WBAI radio.
“He sat on my couch and told me all the good things he was going to do for Harlem,” Hayden said. “All these people have been speaking up on this incident and telling him to drop the charges because I’m a good guy working for the community. But this guy won’t do what he was elected to do.”
Hayden is still filming NYPD stop-and-frisks Uptown, and has attracted a cadre of like-minded people who are now doing the same. He has no plans to stop.
“I have seen the police turn our community into an open-air prison,” he said. “I’ve been to prison, so I know what I’m talking about. You see the police putting up these five-story high towers full of cameras to watch people. Those were developed for use in Iraq, not for Harlem.
“Stop-and-frisk has been part and parcel of communities of color in this country, but it has never been like it is now. This is outrageous.”
Hayden is next due in court Oct. 11. He’s charged with criminal possession of a weapon, a class D felony, and faces a possible sentence of up to seven years.
Hayden was offered a plea involving no jail and several hours of community service, defense attorneys have said. Vance's office also dropped the bat-related charges.
Joan Vollero, a spokeswoman for Vance’s office, said the office does not comment on pending cases.
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