Man Claims NYPD Cops Forced Him To Rap For His Freedom

by Yohance Kyles

• With all the attention on the New York Police Department lately after the reported racial profiling incidents at Barneys and Macy’s the latest allegation of harassment is giving the NYPD another public and community relations disaster to deal with. In this case an aspiring East New York rapper says officers made him perform for them in order to escape jail.

[ALSO READ: “Treme” Actor Sues Macy’s & NYPD For Racial Profiling]

In what sounds like a modern-day incident of forced “shuckin’ and jivin’,” Quinshon Shingles, aka Sauce Da Boss, says plainclothes officers forced him to rap as he laid handcuffed on the floor of his cousin’s apartment back in 2011.
“I felt like they were humiliating me,” Shingles told the New York 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 allegedly got the building’s super to open the door to the apartment after the resident refused to let them in without a warrant. They apparently suspected Shingle’s cousin of a crime, but no charges were brought.
One of the officers at the scene, David Grieco, is already under investigation for other illegal entries. Grieco and other NYPD cops have faced several lawsuits concerning illegal searches and theft.
Shingles adds that the officers kept him and two other people handcuffed as they searched the premises. Eventually, after learning he was a rapper, the cops told him he better “rap something” if he wants to go home. They approved of his rhymes and let him go.
Shingles has filed a lawsuit against the NYPD in Brooklyn Federal Court.