Jack & Jill Politics

Alex Lombard III displays the scars allegedly given to him by the NYPD. They’re not on his ankle. Photo via

Last month in Harlem, 17 year old Alex Lombard III was allegedly placed in a choke hold, beaten with a nightstick, and tazered four times by local police who were responding to “a disturbance” around 126th Street and Park Ave. He was then charged with “disorderly conduct.”

If it were any other young black man, this might have occurred without further incident. Unfortunately for those involved, Alex Lombard III’s dad is a cop.

A retired 20-YEAR veteran of the NYPD said yesterday that cops used excessive force against his son when they zapped him four times with a Taser, hit him 15 times with a nightstick and put him in a choke hold.

Retired Lt. Alexander Lombard said his son, Alexander Lombard 3rd, 17, was beaten by cops after they arrived at a “community sponsored” barbecue at 126th St. and Park Ave. last month.

The police who allegedly attacked him claim they “applied the stun gun to his ankle.” Which begs the question of how Lombard then got stun gun scars all over his torso*.

But Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne said in a statement that a police sergeant “employed a Taser against the suspect’s ankle” to subdue him after responding to a large disturbance at about 3:30 a.m.

A black law enforcement group is protesting his treatment, alleging abuse and excessive force.

The group, 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, called on NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly to launch an investigation into the arrest of Alex Lombard III, who was allegedly placed in a choke hold and struck with an electrical stun gun four times after police responded to a disturbance near 125th Street and Park Avenue at about 3:30 a.m. on Aug. 19.

“To stun a 17-year-old four times and then for him to be charged with just disorderly conduct is extreme,” said Noel Leader, a co-founder of the group. “We believe it manifests into the form of abuse.”

Leader — who is a retired NYPD sergeant — said he found it suspicious that Lombard was only issued a summons for disorderly conduct following the arrest despite the apparent need for force, specifically the use of a Taser multiple times. If that much force was required to subdue the teen, Leader said, Lombard should have also been charged with resisting arrest or assaulting a police officer.

But you probably didn’t hear about this story when it finally broke yesterday, because it was only covered by local papers in New York like the Daily News and the Metro. But you know what you did hear about?

You did hear about O.J.

Watch as the Washington Post’s Paul Farhi attempts to rationalize his paper’s decision to hold a discussion group and devote heavy coverage to the O.J. case, while not showing similar interest in the Jena Six.

Silver Spring, Md.: Is this truly important? Have you had a discussion on the Jena 6?

Paul Farhi: On some level, yes, this is important. It’s about celebrity and justice and race and fairness and the mysteries of human behavior. And Jena is important, too. We can handle more than one important story at a time.

They can. They just didn’t. I guess human behavior in the Jena story is less of a “mystery” to them.

Farhi can only argue that “on some level” the O.J. story is important. The importance of the events in Jena is obvious to anyone who reads about them, but the Post devotes its resources, coverage, and online discussion groups to a story that is only, in Farhi’s own words, important ” on some level.”

But my favorite argument in the meager argument Farhi musters in his paper’s defense has to be that the O.J. story is important because it is about “the mysteries of human behavior.”

Can you imagine a reporter pitching that to an editor?

“I want to do a story on the mysteries of human behavior.”

The real appeal of the O.J. story is that it restores a comfortable narrative for America, where the bad guys and the good guys are marked by the color of their skin. As the media is inundated with stories about our dysfunctional and racist criminal justice system like those of The Jena Six, Kenneth Foster, Troy Davis and Genarlow Wilson, the O.J. story offers an opportunity to return to a more simplistic understanding of race and criminality.

Ask yourself which is more relevant to your personal life; the possibility of law enforcement officials using excessive force against your child and then lying about it, or a washed-up celebrity being arrested?

*Further reports indicate the police may have been rehearsing for the Broadway musical version of Do The Right Thing. Sike.