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Doll head sparks accusations of racism

BY ROCCO PARASCANDOLA | rocco.parascandola@newsday.com

7:09 PM EDT, July 23, 2008

A black doll's head has sparked accusations of racial insensitivity among police in Harlem.

State Sen. Bill Perkins yesterday accused the NYPD of turning a blind eye to accusations that two white cops -- a lieutenant and a police officer -- were driving around Harlem Tuesday with the large doll's head on the back antenna of an unmarked police car.

The NYPD doesn't deny the existence of the doll's head, but said the cops likely drove around unaware that kids had put it on the antenna as a prank. Internal Affairs investigators are now looking for surveillance video to find the culprit, police said.

"Two cops don't see the doll's head on the antenna?" Perkins said. "That's incredible. It's a baldfaced lie. They continue to perpetuate the kind of distrust and the growing gap between the community and the police."

Several teens said they saw the doll Tuesday, including around noon, but Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne, the NYPD's top spokesman, said the car was not in use until 3 p.m.

Browne said the two cops were part of a special operations detail. At about 6:30 p.m., they stopped at a Fifth Avenue restaurant celebrating its grand opening. There were a number of local officials there, as well as NYPD Deputy Insp. Dwayne Montgomery. The cops checked in with Montgomery, who is black, and who later said he saw nothing on the car -- then left to check in on a basketball tournament at a nearby public school.

When the two cops returned to the restaurant, according to Browne, someone pointed out the doll's head. The lieutenant denied having put it there, said he would never do such a thing and flung it to the ground, Browne said.

Perkins, however, said the cops put the doll's head in the trunk when one teen tried to snap a picture of it. The cops, Perkins said, tried to laugh off the matter at first, then realized a number of people at the restaurant were upset about it.

"Where is the doll now?" Perkins asked. "They wouldn't open the trunk."

Browne said it wasn't clear if the doll had been located.