By Michele Evans / NYweeklyRecord.com / Date: 9/28/2026
Category: NYPD / Civil Rights / Public Safety / Government Accountability
NEW YORK CITY, NY –
A forceful arrest over an alleged spitting violation in Brownsville has opened a new fight over whether police should be issuing those summonses at all.
Public video from September 19 shows NYPD officers confronting 21-year-old Abdoulaye Traore and writing a summons near the 73rd Precinct. The footage then shows an officer grab Traore by the collar, take him to the pavement and handcuff him. The video circulating publicly does not show everything that happened before the takedown.
The NYPD said officers had warned Traore after he spat twice and that he threatened to slap an officer. That account was based on body-camera footage the department did not release. Gothamist reported that it could not independently verify the police account.
Community activist Kevin McCall offered a different account, saying officers failed to warn or de-escalate before the arrest. That claim also remains disputed.
Police charged Traore with second-degree obstructing governmental administration and second-degree harassment. He was released without bail. The spitting summons itself was a civil enforcement action, while the later charges were criminal allegations. He is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
Councilmember Chris Banks, whose district includes Brownsville, said Thursday that he plans to seek removal of spitting from the city’s litter law. His staff was still drafting the proposal, and no bill number had been issued. The mayor’s office said it would review the measure.
Current city law prohibits spitting on sidewalks, in parks and other public places. The NYPD issued 549 spitting summonses during the 2026 fiscal year, according to data cited by Gothamist.
The policy question is larger than one ticket. A low-level civil violation can become a physical arrest when a stop escalates, exposing the person stopped, officers and bystanders to risk. It can also produce criminal charges that carry consequences far beyond the original summons.
New York City’s quality-of-life enforcement system has already faced scrutiny over defective summonses and cases that do not survive review. Banks’ proposal would not erase the separate criminal charges against Traore, and it would not by itself resolve questions about the officers’ use of force.
Those questions include what the unreleased body-camera video shows, whether de-escalation rules were followed and whether supervisors reviewed the encounter. Until the footage and the department’s review are public, residents are being asked to judge an escalation without the full record.
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