Kang Chun Wong, 84, of Manhattan, who was left bloodied and humiliated by NYPD cops during a jaywalking ticket blitz plans to file a $5 million lawsuit against the city.
The 84-year-old Manhattan man left bruised, bloodied and humiliated by NYPD cops during a jaywalking ticket blitz plans to hit back with a $5 million lawsuit, the Daily News has learned.
Kang Chun Wong has lived in the same Upper West Side neighborhood for nearly five decades. He owned the popular La Nueva Victoria restaurant on Broadway while raising three sons, and now spends his retirement doting on his grandchildren and socializing with friends at a senior center in Chinatown.
Then suddenly on Jan. 19, while returning to his W. 97th St. apartment, Wong walked right into a nightmarish police operation hatched by the local precinct commander in response to a spate of fatal pedestrian accidents.
His head, arm and ribs still sore from the violent confrontation with cops, Wong told the Daily News he is in disbelief that a lifetime of abiding by the law could be turned upside down — with him knocked unconscious on the street, handcuffed in a hospital emergency room and facing a litany of criminal charges.
DAVID HANDSCHUH/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wong owned this popular La Nueva Victoria restaurant on Broadway while raising three sons and has lived in the same Upper West Side neighborhood for nearly five decades.
“I didn’t commit any crime,” Wong said during the exclusive interview, translated by family lawyer Hazel Chin. “It was excessive how they (the police) did it to me. If I did something wrong, I could understand, but I didn’t.
“They make me feel shame,” he said. “I was very humiliated.”
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton has called the incident “unfortunate.” But on Friday, the NYPD News' Twitter account quoted Bratton at the CompStat meeting praising the 24th Precinct cops and their commander for “taking action, addressing jaywalking."
The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment.
ANDREW SAVULICH/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wong maintains the traffic signal was green when he stepped off the curb at the southeast corner of 96th St. and Broadway to cross, but it may have turned red by the time the octogenarian reached the other side. 'I didn’t commit any crime,' Wong told the News.
“We can have police efforts focused on pedestrian safety without violating the civil rights of our citizens,” said Wong’s lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein, who will file a notice of the lawsuit on Monday, naming the city, NYPD and unidentified officers as defendants.
Wong maintains the traffic signal was green when he stepped off the curb at the southeast corner of 96th St. and Broadway to cross, but it may have turned red by the time the octogenarian reached the other side, where an unidentified cop stopped him and demanded to see his identification.
Wong speaks only Cantonese and Spanish, but understood the meaning of the officer’s demand for “ID.”
When the cop began walking away with his card, Wong said he followed after him. “I was very puzzled and I was very scared,” he said. “I had no idea why I had been stopped. I used Cantonese and said give me back my ID.”
ANDREW SAVULICH/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wong's head, arm and ribs are still sore from the violent confrontation with cops, during which he was knocked unconscious on the street, handcuffed in a hospital emergency room and slapped with a litany of criminal charges.
In response to Wong’s repeated requests for his card back, the cop whipped out handcuffs and spoke into his portable radio. “I got more scared,” Wong said.
Several officers raced over and grabbed Wong, pushing him against the wall of a building. Wong said he was pushed to the ground and struck his head, blacking out. When he regained consciousness, blood was streaming down his face and his hands were cuffed behind his back.
From his humble beginnings in China, to immigrating to Cuba at age 19 to work on farms, to traveling with only the clothes on his back to New York City in 1966, where he slept on floors and worked in restaurants until he could operate his own eatery, Wong said he had never found himself on the wrong side of the law.
“I always respected the police,” he said. “The officer and detectives from the precinct used to come into my restaurant all the time.”
There was no offer of food or water for Wong during his stay at the 24th Precinct while he was being booked. “The fingerprinting hurt,” Wong said, because the cop was having difficulty manipulating his frail fingers for the processing. The NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau is looking into the incident, Bratton said.
