Things are getting worse for the NYPD.
Not only was the department and the city embarrassed by the whole tackling and mistaken identity takedown of James Blake, but they man they were originally looking for was innocent as well.
Per NYT:
The team of officers, looking for suspects in a credit card fraud ring, were relying on a courier who identified Mr. Blake as one of the buyers, the police said. The officers also had an Instagram photo of someone believed to be involved. That person, who Mr. Bratton said looked like Mr. Blake’s “twin brother,” turned out to have no role in the scheme.
Officer Frascatore then ran toward Mr. Blake and knocked him to the ground, raising concerns about “the inappropriateness of the amount of force that was used during the arrest,” Mr. Bratton said.
After releasing Mr. Blake, the officers did not fill out a “void arrest” form, leaving Mr. Bratton to learn what had happened from members of his public affairs staff, who told him about news reports about the episode.
So it appears that they NYPD was essentially looking for a ghost, using Instagram pictures for reference. I see a really large lawsuit coming.