Outrage as woman held in mental hospital because police didn’t believe BMW was hers

“The doctor stuck me in the arm with a needle and I woke up to them taking my clothes off… specifically my underwear.”

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by Kayleigh Dray |
Published on

Kamilah Brock, 32, said that police pulled her over at a red light in Harlem, New York City, and asked her why her hands were not on the steering wheel.

The banker told him that it was because she was dancing to her car music and that she didn’t think it was a problem because she was at a red light.

“I said I was dancing, I am at a light,” she told PIX11.

“He asked me to get out of the car.”

The police took her into custody and transported her to the NYPD’s 30th precinct where she says she was held for several hours before being released without charges.But, when she returned the next day (as requested) to pick up her 2003 BMW 325Cl, police did not believe that she was the vehicle’s rightful owner.

She told the news site: "I told them I have a BMW. They asked me what kind of car it was and, from that moment, they started looking at me differently like I could not have a BMW.

“They put me in handcuffs and said they just need to put me in handcuffs to take me to my car. And I said OK, whatever it's gonna take to get to my car.”

“Then EMS approached me. And they said we're gonna take you to your car. And I'm like, in an ambulance? I'm going to my car in an ambulance? I'm going to my car in an ambulance?

“I was just so confused.”

Kamilah was taken to Harlem hospital’s psychiatric ward, where she claims she was forced to take lithium and was injected with powerful sedatives.

“[The doctor] held onto me and then he stuck me in the arm and I was on a stretcher and I woke up to them taking my clothes off, specifically my underwear.

“Then I went back out again. When I woke up the next day, I felt like I was in a nightmare. I didn't understand why that was happening to me.”

In the end, Kamilah was eventually released - along with a hospital bill for $13,000.

She has since filed a lawsuit against the city, the hospital, and the unnamed police officers.

Her layer, Michael Lamonsoff, claims that over the eight days in the hospital, psych staff repeatedly tried to get Kamilah to deny that she owned the BMW, that she was a banker, and that President Barack Obama followed her on Twitter.

All of which are true.

He said: "She had no history of mental illness to brand her as mentally ill because she was telling the truth about who she was.”

He added to The Huffington Post: "If a white woman was trying to reclaim her BMW impounded by police, would she have been made a victim?

"Would she have been questioned? Would she have been subject to sarcastic comments? Would she be made to justify who she was in order to ask for help? I don't think so. I do think race played a part in this."

The NYPD confirmed Brock was taken into custody but said it could not comment further due to pending litigation. The City's Law Department also could not comment for the same reasons.

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