Former tennis star James Blake has testified that a plain-clothed police officer never identified himself before throwing him to the ground and handcuffing him outside in 2015 outside his Manhattan hotel.
"He never said 'NYPD.' He never said 'officer'," Blake said at a disciplinary trial for Officer James Frascatore. "He never said 'freeze,' like you'd see in the movies."
Blake testified that he remained handcuffed for about 10 minutes before police realised they had mistaken Blake for a suspect wanted in a fraud investigation. At one point, Blake said, Frascatore told him, "You know you're safe, right?"
Blake said responded: "I don't know I'm safe. I don't know why I'm here."
After being freed without an apology from the officer, a "dazed" Blake's first instinct was to "tough it out and walk it off," he testified. He said his wife asked him what he'd do if the same thing happened to her, which "woke me up."
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"It shouldn't happen to me. It shouldn't happen to anyone," he testified. "There needs to be accountability for everybody."
Blake's arrest - captured in a security video - became another flashpoint in the national debate over police use of force against unarmed black men. The 37-year-old American, once the world No.4, is the child of a black father and white mother; Frascatore is white.
In an opening statement, attorney Stephen Worth argued the officer was following orders when he used a takedown move on Blake that police use every day without being disciplined. His client was charged only "because James Blake is a celebrity," he said.
