In a city with an Arab American mayor and Muslim American police chief, you’d think that minorities—especially Arabs and Muslims—would not have to worry about being beaten up by the police for simply walking on the street. But you’d be wrong, as Osamah Alsaidi, a then-19-year-old teen who was simply walking to his car in Paterson, New Jersey, brutally learned.
Alsaidi had a simple story to tell but no one—at least not the authorities—believed him. On Dec. 14, 2020, Alsaidi, who has no criminal record, left his house at about 12:30 a.m., walking to his car parked on the street so he could be on time for his 1 a.m. shift at Amazon. It was then that Alsaidi, a Yemeni American who is active in the local mosque, claimed he was approached by two Paterson police officers who within seconds of the encounter began punching him in the face and body.
In large part many dismissed Alsaidi’s story because the police report told a vastly different tale. Paterson police officers Kevin Patino and Kendry Tineo wrote they were in the area in response to a report of a “suspicious person” when they spotted Alsaidi. The officers alleged that suddenly Alsaidi “walked towards these officers screaming profanities and acting belligerent causing a disturbance to the residents.”
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From there, Alsaidi, who is only 5 foot 6 inches as noted in the police report, allegedly struck the officer “with a closed fist” causing the officer to “stumble back.” The officers noted that they responded by using force against Alsaidi who they claim attempted to grab one officer’s radio, prompting them to put him in “compliance hold,” despite the teen allegedly “swinging his upper torso erratically.”
Alsaidi, who required hospitalization for the injuries he suffered from the officers, was charged with aggravated assault of a police officer, resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct. These are serious charges. If Alsaidi is convicted, his life would change forever. Things looked bleak.
But then came the video. Over the weekend, Alsaidi released footage from a security camera that appears to have changed everything. (Alsaidi’s lawyer will not disclose yet where the video was obtained given the criminal charges are still pending.) The video shows exactly what Alsaidi had been claiming. He was walking alone when the police abruptly parked their car in front of him. The two officers quickly confronted Alsaidi, and within seconds you can see the officers beating him with their fists. Once the officers throw Alsaidi to the ground, shockingly, you can see one officer punching Alsaidi in the face while the other is on top of him.
I spoke with Selaedin Maksut, the executive director of the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) who is working with Alsaidi to get justice. Maksut provided more context that shortly before the officers beat up Alsaidi, they had been dealing with another incident in the area involving what appeared to be a drunk person.
At the time, some bystanders had been yelling and cursing at the cops to leave the man alone. Maksut stated that Alsaidi explained to him that before the police pulled up in front of him, they had yelled words from the car at him to the effect of “What do you call us?!”, to which he responded he had not said anything. Alsaidi had not been yelling at the officers but had just come from a deli where he bought a Red Bull as he walked to his car to help wake up for his 1 a.m. shift.
Perhaps the police believed Alsaidi was one of the people yelling at them, but even if he had been, that’s still zero legal justification for assaulting the teen. As a result of the police officers’ assault, Alsaidi wrote in a social media post that he suffered a concussion, partial loss of sight for several weeks and migraines. He has retained a lawyer to sue the police.
The Alsaidi family, along with CAIR, has called for the police officers involved—three in all, as a third one arrived later and also struck Alsaidi near the end of the incident—to be fired. While that hasn’t occurred, all three officers were placed on desk duty as of Tuesday. The New Jersey Attorney General’s office has now opened an investigation into the incident.
The mayor of Paterson, Andre Sayegh, who is Arab American, along with Paterson Police Chief Ibrahim “Mike” Baycora—who was appointed in 2020 making him the first Muslim police chief in Paterson’s history—have been responsive per Maksut to the concerns of Alsaidi. But as Maksut and others from Paterson noted on social media, changing the police culture takes more than appointing a minority police chief.
Although it appears over time that can make a difference. A 2020 study found on a per-capita rate, fatal shootings by police officers was about 65 percent lower in the 60 largest cities when there’s a black police chief than with white police heads. And former New Jersey police officials like Dalton Price, a retired Paterson police lieutenant who is Black, recently told NorthJersey.com that he believes diversity in police leadership will ultimately have an impact “in thinking,” adding, “We won’t look at things the same way [as white officers], based on where we come from and where we stand.”
That’s promising for the future. But as Alsaidi stated Tuesday in a press conference, "A lot of times, if it's you against an officer, most of the times they always believe the officer." As of now, that is still the case even when the mayor and police chief are from your own minority community.
