James Blake, Former Tennis Star, Detained by Police in Case of Mistaken Identity

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at Internationaled.org

Published: September 9, 2015

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Retired tennis player James Blake was handcuffed and slammed to the ground by multiple police officers Wednesday while on his way to U.S. Open action in New York City.

According to Wayne Coffey of the New York Daily News, Blake was approached by five white police officers wearing plain clothes, who mistook him for the operator of an identity-theft ring. Blake suffered superficial wounds, and the officers released him once they realized they had made a mistake.

Blake discussed the incident on Good Morning America on Thursday, saying: "At no time did he let me know he was a police officer ... didn't have a badge."

Blake said he offered to show his U.S. Open credential, adding "Five or ten minutes in, I admitted, 'I'm scared.'"

When asked, he refused to say whether he was a victim of racial profiling.

"I don't know if it's as simple as that," Blake told the New York Daily News (h/t ABCNews.com). "To me it's as simple as unnecessary police force, no matter what my race is. In my mind there's probably a race factor involved, but no matter what, there's no reason for anybody to do that to anybody."

Blake said an officer—who was not wearing a badge—ran up to him outside his hotel and tackled him to the ground without offering an explanation. The first officer was later joined by four additional officers. Blake was told witnesses tipped them off, saying he was the perpetrator of the alleged scheme.

"You'd think they could say, 'Hey, we want to talk to you. We are looking into something,'" Blake said in Coffey's report. "I was just standing there. I wasn't running. It's not even close [to being OK]. It's blatantly unnecessary. You would think at some point they would get the memo that this isn't OK, but it seems that there's no stopping it."

After the incident, the USTA released a statement on Blake's treatment, via Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv:...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Tennis

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