Meatpacking cop bash
Police arrested Michael Crew, 27, early on Feb. 2 after he allegedly attacked a police officer so viciously that the officer suffered a concussion and was briefly hospitalized.
The incident started around 4:45 a.m., when cops said they were attempting to clear a group of people out of the road near the corner of W. 14th St. and Ninth Ave., after an apparent dispute. Crew was one of the people involved in that fracas, and reportedly refused to move after multiple orders from police.
When one of the officers, a 23-year-old man, finally tried to escort him onto the sidewalk, Crew put him in a headlock and threw him down, smacking the officer’s head against the ground, police said. As the officer was lying dazed, face-up in the street, Crew reportedly jumped onto his chest and began choking him, before other cops at the scene could drag him off.
Even after he was pulled away, Crew continued trying to escape from the officers or wrestle them down until he was finally subdued and handcuffed, police said.
The injured officer was rushed by ambulance to Beth Israel Hospital and treated for a mild concussion before being released.
Crew was charged with assaulting a police officer, strangulation, resisting arrest and obstructing government administration.
Driving in a daze
John Doe, 36, was arrested on Jan. 30 after he was caught driving while both drunk and high on marijuana, police said.
Officers first spotted Doe around 11:40 p.m., as he sat behind the wheel of his Subaru Forester near the corner of W. 13th St. and Ninth Ave, reportedly smoking a joint. Although the car wasn’t moving, his keys were in the ignition and the engine was running, cops said.
When an officer approached the vehicle on foot, Doe apparently panicked and drove away, heading west on 13th St. But after he circled back minutes later, police pulled him over near the same corner where he was originally parked. The driver smelled strongly of pot and booze, while also slurring his speech and looking unsteady on his feet, according to police — and the officers at the scene said Doe’s joint was still sitting on his inside door handle.
Doe quickly confessed to having two additional bags of weed in the car, which the officers recovered, and he also admitted to having had “a few drinks,” according to the police report.
But the driver refused to submit to a breath test that would have shown his blood-alcohol level, and when cops asked him for a urine sample to test whether he had marijuana in his system, he also said no.
“I smoke every day,” Doe reportedly told the officers, in response to their request for the urine sample. “I smoke on a daily basis. I don’t see the point.”
Doe was charged with criminal possession of marijuana, two counts of driving while intoxicated (one for alcohol and one for drugs) and driving while ability impaired (a lesser, noncriminal charge).
Drug-deal bust
Police arrested Rodney Spencer, 52, and James Hunt, 36, on Jan. 29 after they allegedly tried pulling off a drug deal inside the McDonald’s near the corner of W. 14th St. and Sixth Ave.
Spencer was first seen inside the fast-food joint around 1:30 p.m., when cops said they saw him holding a bag of marijuana. Soon afterward, he reportedly handed the stash over to Hunt, who had just entered the restaurant, in exchange for cash.
Officers stepped in moments later to arrest the pair and recover the drugs.
Spencer was charged with criminal sale of marijuana, and Hunt was charged with criminal possession of marijuana.
Pee and run
Robert Chambers, 28, was arrested early on Jan. 31 after he was caught peeing on a parked car, police said.
Officers spotted Chambers around 12:45 a.m. as he was urinating on the vehicle near the corner of W. 13th and Washington Sts., according to the police report. And when he saw that he had company, Chambers reportedly fled the scene — but he didn’t get far, as the officers chased him down moments later.
Once he was caught, Chambers allegedly tried to prevent the officers from handcuffing him by pulling his arms away and twisting his body. So, in addition to the violation for public urination, he was charged with resisting arrest.
— Sam Spokony
