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George Capsis, Local News Publisher, Slaps Police Officer
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George Capsis was taken into custody Thursday May 17 shortly after slapping a uniformed police officer | Photo by Maggie Berkvist via westviewnews.orgGeorge Capsis, the publisher of WestView News, slapped a uniformed police officer during a traffic argument.
The Villager's Police Blotter for the week of May 24, 2012 gives a detailed account:
"George Capsis, 84, was charged with slapping a police officer at 5:45 p.m. Thurs., May 17 , “while in an apparent highly agitated state,” at the corner of Bleecker and Leroy Sts. and continued to struggle while being arrested, according to a Sixth Precinct police report.
Capsis, who publishes WestView newspaper, wrote his version of the incident in an e-mail to several people the following morning. He said he became irritated when a van, which turned out to be a police vehicle, pulled into the bike lane in front of him while he was on his bike. After saying, “Police shouldn’t break the law,” Capsis described an escalating scenario in which two cops pinned him to the van and ordered him to dismount his bike.
In the e-mail, he said he couldn’t move, and that amid “the political deceptions, the arrogance of monied power, an irresistible rush of hate welled up and I slapped him.” Capsis said one officer punched him and he struggled while another tried to cuff him. More cops came, took Capsis to the precinct and then to Beth Israel’s emergency room.
Capsis is free on his own recognizance and is due in court Mon., June 25.
At Community Board 2’s Waterfront Committee meeting Monday night he was sporting a large red welt under his left eye."
