File this one under “ballsy:”
A York College student who was stopped by police after leaving Kennedy Airport was charged with impersonating a federal agent, according to Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.Stephan M. Kishore’s masquerade came to an end after a Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police officer stopped his minivan Monday afternoon on an expressway near John F. Kennedy International Airport for changing lanes without signaling, prosecutors said.
The officer said he noticed a large police decal on a rear door of the minivan and red and blue strobe lights on the dashboard. There also were two U.S. Department of Homeland Security parking placards on the dashboard, prosecutors said.
Kishore, who is from Trinidad but lives in the Bronx, then showed the officer a phony Homeland Security ID card and shield, prosecutors said. When asked if he was a police officer, Kishore replied, “Yes, and I’m on duty,” they said.
However, the officer became suspicious when he read on the back of the shield: “CopShop.com, Collectible Badge, Not For Official Use.” CopShop, based in Umatilla, Fla., calls itself the online mall for cops, selling sheriff’s office badges, state trooper patches, collectible pins and law enforcement apparel. [Link]
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p>I think that the main problem here was that Kishore showed weakness when pulled over. If it was me and a real cop pulled me over I’d be like, “No, let me see yo’ I.D. b*tch.” Things then turned much worse for the enterprising young Kishore who was just trying to live out the dream. It is hard becoming a brown cop in a white man’s world after all.
Kishore, 20, was arraigned Tuesday night in Queens Criminal Court on charges of criminal impersonation, forgery and criminal possession of a weapon, a forged instrument and forgery devices, District Attorney Richard Brown said.“The defendant’s alleged conduct in this era of heightened security was both dangerous and reprehensible because it exploited the public’s trust in the police and placed both his life and those of actual police officers in possible jeopardy,” Brown said in a statement.
Kishore, a student at York College in Queens, was being held Wednesday on $50,000 bail. His next court date is Sept. 5. He could face up to seven years in prison if convicted. [Link]
Are you f*cking kidding me? They are basically saying that impersonating a police officer is suddenly a bigger crime because it is post-9/11 (and because this dude is brown). Sure, fine him and make him do some community service or probation but do we have to throw the book at him? I wonder if it had to do anything with this detail:
“He has always been obsessed with being a cop and had decals all over his room,” she said.
She added that her nephew, who was licensed as a locksmith at age 18, had been taking flying lessons at LaGuardia Airport.
“But he isn’t political. He would never be a threat like a terrorist,” she said. “He’s really more of a big kid. He’s kind of childish.”[Link]
Rather than put this guy in jail I think FBI should recruit him (isn’t there always a secret unit that recruits convicts and neerdowells for some extra-tough mission?). My boy was running a very integrated task force consisting of local and federal law enforcement officials in a seamless manner and without any of the bureaucracy involved:
They also said they found 32 federal police ID cards, including ones for the U.S. Marshals Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and shields for city departments including police and correction. [Link]
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Free Stephan!
I actually knew a kid who had fake police lights and impersonated police back in college. He chased down some other folks, his friends, but got caught himself. I don’t know what happened (this was on the I-57 down to Urbana-Champaign through the cornfields), but he did face a shitstorm. I think he got good lawyers and managed not to go to jail. The airport bit is probably what really scared the shit out of law enforcement.
Impersonating any uniformed official is outright stupid. Military and Police posers are dealt with very little respect.
I’ve had the opportunity to work with an impersonator who had me going, as well as the reputable company he was working for good. I mean good. He was so talented he fooled fellow Marines. But every poser will be exposed at some point and time.
Larry is his name, here and here is his story.
[cough] bullshit! [cough] Straight gangsta, Abhi.
I was thinking the same thing DD
When I was a kid some other kid in LA got shot by the cops while carrying a fake toy gun. in the last few years it happened again in Richmond. I’m glad this story worked out better than that, though it sounds like they are overreacting, especially given the aunt’s description.
couldn’t disagree with you more. I say throw the book a the guy, and if weren’t brown, i bet you would too.
Yep.
Impersonating a cop should always be a big deal b/c of the potential to abuse perceived authority. I’m more concerned about blue-light rapists then this “era of heightened security.” For that reason, if I’m pulled in an isolated area I put on my flashers, slow down & drive to a well-lit area.
Is there a new craze to collect these? akin to baseball cards?
Childish impersonating NRI FOB …hmm!! not satisfied with already “enough” conflicting characteristics, brother had to pull “Playing Cop” role as well! Serves right!
$50K Bail amount = Probably not enough to scare other “demented” brownies seven years in prison = Excellent. A final opportunity, to shed “childish” behaviour and morph into a MAN…a REAL one.
This guy is a tool and deserves every punishment he gets just for sheer stupidity.
What a friggin idiot…. he ought to be shot and pissed on!
The real conversation might go something like this…..
Abhi (indignant): “Don’t you know who I am ?”
Cop: “No. Who are you ?”
Abhi: “I’m the mastermind behind Sepia Mutiny.”
Cop: “Never heard of it. Is it some kind of sleeper cell ?”
Abhi (thinking very quickly indeed as he momentarily has a stroke): “Er, no. It’s a South Asian-focused group discussion blog.”
Cop: “Blog ? What the hell is that, a weekly therapy meeting for lapsed Pakistanis ?”
Abhi: “No, it’s a discussion forum on the internet.”
Cop: “The inter-what ? Interweb ?”
Abhi: “Internet, dammit. That thing you use to look for porn.”
Cop: “Aha, I thought you looked familiar. Especially with these handcuffs on.”
If it was me and a real cop pulled me over I’d be like, “No, let me see yo’ I.D. b*tch.”
Shouldn’t it be more like- “Biatch” ??
“If it was me and a real cop pulled me over IÂ’d be like, “No, let me see yoÂ’ I.D. b*tch.”
Shouldn’t it be more like- “Biatch” ??”
Nope. Higher Learning. Ice Cube.
Good catch of my reference.
What a fool While they’re at, they should also confiscate those fake NYPD badges people use in their cars to park illegally in the streets, or atleast let me know where to get one!!!!!
“Yes, and I’m on duty” ??? Obsessive fascination with law enforcement? The guy sounds delusional, and that’s all we need, more delusional people filling up our prison beds, while murderers and rapists walk free.
Prison’s not the place for this guy; therapy is. :<
They are basically saying that impersonating a police officer is suddenly a bigger crime because it is post-9/11 (and because this dude is brown).
Well yes it is, but because he is a dumbass who happens to be brown. He is also a locksmith who happens to be impersonating a federal agent. Those two facts actually make his actions very suspicious to NYPD not to mention the flying lessons. He should get a very good lawyer quickly, otherwise I wouldn’t be surprised if they send him to Gitmo. But don’t worry y’all, they don’t torture there anymore.wink wink
Not really. All the brown cops in the NYPD and other law enforcement agencies in New York are truly the elite and made it there on pure merit and ability. Most were highly educated before they got there. And the ranks are growing.
Breaking the law is breaking the law period! Impersonating a police officer is a crime period, post or pre 9/11 and he should have the book thrown at him. In fact I personally believe on the scale of stupidity the higher the score the bigger the sentence! Just because he didn’t get caught doing something dangerous doesn’t mean he wouldn’t have in the future with what he was doing. I have no sympathy for someone like this just because he’s brown. I think he should be flogged. There are been too many cases of people inpersonating law enforcement in this city where others have gotten hurt.
Geez, everyone is so irrationally hard. Think about this. He wasn’t going door to door pretending to be a cop as far as has been reported. He wasn’t pulling people over pretending to be a cop. For all we know he has NEVER represented himself as a cop EXCEPT when he got pulled over and perhaps in a state of panic said “yes” he was a cop instead of “no” he wasn’t. With a red and blue light on his dashboard he was left with limited options. If he had simply said “no” when the real officer asked him he would have gotten a slap on the wrist. Basically what some people in this comment thread are saying is that this guy should spend 7 years in jail (that’s what “throw the book” means) because he wanted to be something so badly that he was slightly delusional. No thanks. I’d rather not live in that kind of American police state (pardon the pun). I second Andrea’s comment.
Abhi or anyone else for that matter: What have other cases similar to this recieved in sentencing? What are the set precendents here? Stupidity is not an excuse, nor should murderers, rapists, and violent folk be out on the streets. The dude should pay for his violations, but to what extent? I’ll leave that up to the folks who know more than I do in this particular case.
Violent and non-violent offenders be not be in prison together. Petty drug offenders (abusers) should not be in the same prison as non drug related criminals. Etc, etc, etc…. The prison system and laws need quite a bit of tweaking.
i am brown and this is a great resource for all of us, but i draw the line at supporting something illegal. abhi, surely you don’t think impersonating a cop is ok? yes he didn’t do anything major … yet. tomorrow he’ll gain access to people’s homes using his badge, drive along the shoulder using his lights … what next? are you also (by extension) saying it’s ok for everyone to have these badges and lights and parking passes? stop this idiocy of supporting anything brown.
File that one under ‘imminent danger of ball-lessness’.
*nods in the general direction of DD and Taz.
I suppose thats when da American dream becomes a nightmare
Lets keep persective. Could doesn’t mean he will. That is the maximum potential which one rarely gets in first offenses unless drugs are involved. What he needs is a asswooping from his mama which I’m sure he will get soon if he already hasn’t.
Did the supporters miss this?:
Prashant, whether Kishore was brown or purple or rainbow colored would make no difference to me. Personally I would feel safer if all the people that think he deserves 7 years in prison were themselves placed in prison and taken off the streets. They are the reason our criminal justice system is broken.
Our criminal justice system is messed up because people are LAZY. This applies evenly from those who slap the wrists of violent offenders or who let child molestors loose with minor sentences to people who are looking for set # of years for an offense, regardless of the intentions behind the crime. There is a wide margin available to the judge for sentencing and an appeals process available for one to pursue for a specific reason. Stuff isn’t as cut and dry.
Throw the book at someone without looking at all the relevant facts, which most of us aren’t privy to, isn’t smart. Was the guy merely parading around like police or was there criminal intent behind using his fake persona(s)? How long was this charade going and will the investigation yield this person profited off his fraud?
Folks, take a step back here. The dude is stupid and will pay the legal consequences of stupidity. The law doesn’t see a difference between stupid or not, we, humans do. Impersonating police should be something one needs to be concerned about and that message needs to be loud and clear. The courts have several options of what type of sentence, if convicted, they can hand down. Depending on the extent of police wannabe’s deception, his punishment should be scaled up/down accordingly.
OK. These make his actions suspicious. So? Suspicion is enough to send people to prison because “everything has changed since 9/11” ?
Proposition:The extent Indian-Americans of whatever generation identify with Hinduism will determine the stregnth of the Indian-American as opposed to the South Asian lobby. Hindus view India as central to their religious self-conception, therefore there will always be an “extra-national” interest to lobby for, as with Aremenian Americans, Greek Americans and Jews.
This is not to say other Indian Americans cannot feel similarly inclined, just that there will be a stronger bias among Hindus.
OK. These make his actions suspicious. So? Suspicion is enough to send people to prison because “everything has changed since 9/11” ?
Well that’s for the prosecutors to decide. As I mentioned before he better get a very good lawyer because the district attorney clearly has a lot of evidence in this case from the forging equipment to criminal possession of a weapon. I think that impersonating a police officer or any higher authority should not be taken lightly in the court system. A couple of years ago, there was a manhunt for a serial rapist who pretended to be a cop by carrying a fake police badge and had strobe lights in his car. I am not saying that was the intention of this kid, but there is high potential for abuse of power. Even if he is a “collector of badges’ or police paraphernalia, he has no right to impersonate a highly trained officer or take the law into his own hands. If he was “scared” of the police, he shouldn’t have shown him a friggin shield and a fake Homeland Security ID card. I want to be a plastic surgeon, but I am not performing surgeries in my garage.
Poor Kid… That is a stiff bail
Abhi:
Walter:
OMG, Stephan is Abhi’s ex???
This is just Darwin at work and further proof that some people were not intelligently designed.
For the record I want to restate that I agree that they are totally overreacting. I was actually so saddened by it I became terse b/c a) it could have gone so much worse and b) this poor boy needs . . .something. Something our society is horribly bad at providing. So I was just sad reading about it. That aunt’s statement. . .so sad. So yes, Andrea, we need a better way of dealing with mental health instead of just shoving people into prison on some days and making fun of them on others.
Amazing how many “throw the book at him” types there are. Yes, we’ll grant he was stupid. But if stupidity were a crime, about 95% of the people I know would have done hard time. This also includes me, and maybe even you, since you’re probably at work and reading this. And to Suraj (#8) who said seven years of jail would “make a man out of him”–good god. I hope you’re joking? Because a) it’s more likely to make a woman out of him, and b) it’s also more likely to make him into a real criminal, rather than a law-enforcement officer.
I don’t really get how conservative our society is becoming, where punishment is sought far more than rehabilitation, or education, or any kind of preventive measures. As a country, we love to hit. We hate to think. It’s not that there aren’t crimes that deserve punishment, it’s that so many people are yelling “stone him! stone him!” like extras in the Life of Brian.
Appalling, really.
Salil..yes! it was meant to be sarcastic. I somewhat agree with your rationale that “if stupidty were crime”…95% of us would have done hard time. The issue at hand is a bit different. He was/is “Stupid” and probably committed “crime” ..by impersonating a Law Enforcement Officer. And when you mix them together…you get Stephan Kishore.
Is he getting a raw deal under the pretext of heightened security in “post 9/11” era? Certainly not.
is he getting a raw deal under the pretext of heightened security in “post 9/11” era? Certainly not.
Shite. You mean he didn’t get the compulsory anal exam for macacas?
Hi Folks,
I am a real cop and am a minority. I disagree with the whole “poor brown guy can’t be a cop in the white man’s world.” Bullshit. I have a master’s degree from John Jay College of Criminal Justice and am a Detective with New York’s Finest. I know plenty of fellow officers who are minorities, became bosses with my job, and their race had nothing to do with it. It’s all about merit.
I don’t see my fellow officers as brown, or yellow, or white or purple. We see each other as brothers and sisters who would lay down our lives for each other, and risk our lives to help civilians in danger.
The guy’s website has him claiming that he’s a Special Agent with ICE’s Special Response Team. Also a minister. And a locksmith.
He will get probation, he will undergo psychiatric counseling, he will be out on the street to play cop or G-man or whatever his weird fantasy world is… until he badges some young lady over to the side, and gets her in his van and rapes her.
But it’s okay. He’s just living out his fantasy.
Peace.
Dinny
I know lots of Indians who play by the rules and are very hardworking. I am such a person.
However, there is bad in every group. This guy Kishore is such an idiot. I agree he should be flogged at a minimum and then deported.
He makes the community look bad. If he isn’t stopped now, he will end up raping somebody. I agree.
To be perfectly honest, the more I think about it the angrier I get (over what this guy Kishore did).
I mean is this guy, Kishore, is he CRAZY or simply flat-out STUPID?
Does this guy have a brain cell left?