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Wonder if Roger Federer would have been treated this way?

Tennis pro James Blake mistaken for suspect, slammed to the ground by 5 police officers

Retired professional tennis player and former Harvard student James Blake was slammed to the ground and detained outside of a hotel in New York City on Wednesday by five white NYPD officers who mistook him for a criminal suspect.

Blake, who is black, told the New York Daily News that he had just answered questions for a writer from a tennis magazine, and was standing outside of the Grand Hyatt hotel texting when he saw a man in a t-shirt and shorts charging towards him.

SEE ALSO: Wiz Khalifa shoved to ground by police after refusing to get off scooter

"Maybe I'm naïve, but I just assumed it was someone I went to high school with or something who was running at me to give me a big hug, so I smiled at the guy," he told the Daily News.

The officer, who Blake said was not wearing a badge, picked him up and threw him down on the ground, ordering him to lay face down, and told him, "don't say a word."

When Blake promised to cooperate and asked the officer what was happening, he was met with a firm "We'll tell you. You are in safe hands."

"I didn't feel very safe," Blake said.

After that, four other officers arrived on the scene, surrounding Blake as he lay on the sidewalk.

He was told that he had been identified by two unnamed people as someone involved in an identity theft ring in the area, and remained handcuffed and detained for 15 minutes before the last of the five officers realized their mistake and apologized — though he did not receive an apology from the first officer who tackled him.

When asked if he thought the incident was a case of racial profiling, he told the Daily News, "I don't know if it's as simple as that. 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."

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

He also added that he would like an apology from the NYPD, and would like to know that there will be consequences for the officers involved "so they know it's not okay to go out there and do this again tomorrow."

"I have resources to get to the bottom of this. I have a voice," Blake said. "But what about someone who doesn't have those resources and doesn't have a voice?"

Though they have yet to issue a public apology, NYPD released the following statement to ThinkProgress on Wednesday afternoon:

“Today James Blake was detained by police in midtown Manhattan in regards to an ongoing investigation into fraudulently purchased cell phones, after being misidentified by a cooperating witness. Once Blake was properly identified and found to have no connection to the investigation, he was released from police custody immediately. In regards to the alleged improper use of force, the Police Commissioner directed the internal affairs bureau to investigate."

The NYPD had previously found itself in hot water in April when NBA player Thabo Sefolosha claimed that police officers broke his leg when they tackled him while trying to get to the center of an investigation into a brawl at a nightclub.
http://mashable.com/2015/09/09/james-blake-nypd/?utm_campaign=Mash-Prod-RSS-Feedburner-All-Partial&utm_cid=Mash-Prod-RSS-Feedburner-All-Partial&utm_medium=feed&utm_source=rss#.IpF.8PgXqky