Published in the The Appeal.
By Olivia Heffernan
Three Bronx friends recount their 2012 arrests in the NYPD‘s ‘Operation Crew Cut,’ experiences with the court system, incarceration and lives seven years later.
At approximately 4 a.m. on Dec. 5, 2012, the streets of the Bronx were dark, cold, and quiet. Three neighborhood friends, Jarrell Daniels, Shaun Deleon, and Dominique Boyd, were still asleep.
Jarrell’s clothes were neatly laid out next to his bed, as they were every morning. It had been two weeks since Jarrell, then 18, started his job at a local McDonald’s. That morning, he had plans to go to school, followed by his 3 p.m. shift. Three hours before his alarm was set to go off, Jarrell was awakened by more than 10 police officers pulling blankets off his body. The officers told him to get dressed and that he was being taken into custody for questioning.
A confused and sleepy Jarrell complied. The officers then created a path in the hallway from his room to the front door so that his mother, two sisters, and 4-year-old niece were unable to see him walk out of their Melrose neighborhood home.
“When they come like that, you know you’re going to jail,” Jarrell said.
Outside, six unmarked cars waited with the engines running. Jarrell was then placed in one of the vehicles. He heard an officer radio over to his dispatcher: “We’ve got one in the sweep.”
“As soon as they said that, I knew it wasn’t just me,” he said.
Jarrell was right.
Read the rest in The Appeal.