Cops Had Rapper “Performing for My Freedom”

By Lora Neng
WWW.STREETGANGS.COM STAFF WRITER
November 6, 2013
The NYPD is in the news again for yet another racial profiling controversy. In 2011, they entered the apartment of Quinshon Shingles’ cousin Tyriek Fortune in plainclothes and without a warrant, allegedly suspecting the tenant of a crime, and forced Shingles to rap for them to get out of handcuffs.
“I felt like they were humiliating me,” said Shingles, aka Sauce Da Boss, to The Washington Post. “They were all Caucasian officers, and I’m a black man, and they had me performing for my freedom. I was really upset.”
The officers convinced a building super to give them access to the apartment, and once they found out Shingles was a rapper, requested that he give them a performance, warning they wouldn’t free him of the rhymes weren’t “hot” enough. Complying, Shingles was let go while his regular companions remained in cuffs. No charges were brought against Fortune, but the cousins are now suing the NYPD for illegal search and false imprisonment.
It was revealed that Fortune had won a settlement against the cops only months before, while one of the officers in the group is currently embroiled in investigations for illegal entries elsewhere.