New York City Council member Chi Ossé filed a misconduct complaint Monday against the NYPD officer who arrested him last month during a protest at a Brooklyn eviction site, a move that drew immediate pushback from the city's largest police union, which said the officer acted squarely within the law.

Ossé, who represents parts of Brooklyn, named Officer Ahmed Zaitoun in the complaint submitted to the Civilian Complaint Review Board, the city agency that investigates and prosecutes police misconduct cases. The complaint alleges Zaitoun used excessive force during the April 22 arrest in Bedford-Stuyvesant, where Ossé and other demonstrators tried to block city marshals and NYPD officers from carrying out an eviction.

Video posted to social media showed an officer grabbing Ossé by his jacket collar, tackling him to the ground, and placing him in handcuffs. Ossé told Politico, which first reported the complaint, that he suffered a concussion from being slammed to the ground. He shared the complaint with the outlet.

The arrest and the charges

The confrontation took place at a property in Bedford-Stuyvesant where a resident faced eviction. Protesters, including Ossé, claimed the woman was a victim of deed theft. The NYPD previously said Ossé and three other protesters were arrested only after they refused verbal commands to stop blocking access to the property where the eviction was set to be executed.

Officers took Ossé to Brooklyn's 79th Precinct, charged him with disorderly conduct and obstructing governmental administration, and released him with a desk appearance ticket.

Here is the detail that undercuts the narrative Ossé and his allies built around the arrest: State Attorney General Letitia James' office said it had determined that deed theft was not at play at the property. In other words, the very premise protesters used to justify blocking a lawful eviction did not hold up under the AG's own review.

That fact has received far less attention from city officials than the arrest video. And it matters. If deed theft was not occurring, then Ossé and the other demonstrators were physically obstructing a lawful civil proceeding, exactly the conduct the charges describe.

The officer's record

Ossé's complaint names Zaitoun, who has been with the NYPD since October 2022, personnel records show. Zaitoun has been accused of excessive force twice before, with both incidents dating back to 2024. But the CCRB determined the claims in those two prior cases were "unfounded," board records show.

That record did not stop Ossé from pressing the complaint. In a statement, the council member framed the filing as a matter of duty.

"My rights were violated, but more importantly, my responsibility to my community and constituents demands a fact-finding."

A CCRB spokesperson confirmed the board has received Ossé's claim and is reviewing it. An NYPD spokesperson declined to comment.

Police union fires back

Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry said he was "not surprised" Ossé filed the complaint, and made clear the union views the move as part of a broader pattern of hostility toward officers. The PBA is already locked in legal battles against the CCRB over what the union calls anti-police bias at the board.

"This officer was clearly acting within the law and NYPD guidelines when effecting the arrest, but none of that matters to CCRB. Their goal is to drive police officers away from this job."

Hendry's blunt assessment reflects a frustration shared widely among rank-and-file officers in a city where police face escalating dangers on the street and a political class that often treats enforcement of the law as the problem rather than the solution.

City Hall and the Council weigh in

Mayor Zohran Mamdani, described by Politico as a longtime critic of the NYPD, called video of Ossé's arrest "incredibly concerning" last month. A spokesperson for the mayor said the administration "respects the independence of the CCRB and will allow the disciplinary process to play out based on the evidence, established procedures, and the NYPD's disciplinary matrix."

That careful language stands in contrast to Mamdani's track record of commentary on police matters. The mayor has drawn criticism for dismissing a snowball assault on NYPD officers as "kids having fun," a remark the police union called a "complete failure of leadership." He has also faced broader political backlash, including sharp criticism from Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman at a Queens rally against antisemitism.

City Council Speaker Julie Menin went further than the mayor. Menin condemned the arrest, showed up to a protest outside the 79th Precinct where Ossé was taken, and spoke to reporters on scene.

"When I saw the video, it's obviously of deep, deep concern. He was thrown to the ground, and as you heard from him directly, he sustained some injuries. That is not acceptable. He was peacefully protesting."

Menin's characterization, "peacefully protesting", skips past the NYPD's account that officers issued verbal commands to stop blocking the property and that the protesters refused. Peaceful protest is a constitutional right. Physically obstructing a lawful eviction after ignoring police orders is a different matter entirely, and the charges filed against Ossé reflect that distinction.

What remains unanswered

Several important questions remain open. Ossé says he suffered a concussion, but whether that injury was medically documented has not been reported. The specific remedies or disciplinary actions his complaint requests are unclear. And the status of his disorderly conduct and obstruction charges, whether they will be prosecuted, reduced, or dropped, has not been disclosed.

The CCRB's review will proceed on its own timeline. But the PBA's skepticism about the board's objectivity is not unfounded. The union has fought the CCRB in court, and the board's track record of finding prior complaints against Zaitoun "unfounded" may complicate Ossé's case, or it may not matter at all if political pressure shapes the outcome.

New York's police officers operate in a city where violent attacks demand split-second responses and where the legal and political environment increasingly second-guesses every use of force. Officers who enforce the law during chaotic scenes now face the prospect of misconduct complaints filed by the very elected officials who were breaking the law.

The broader pattern in New York City politics is hard to miss. Elected officials who position themselves as champions of the people show up at eviction sites, resist lawful court orders, get arrested, and then use the machinery of government oversight to target the officers who did their jobs. Meanwhile, the underlying legal question, whether the eviction was legitimate, gets answered quietly by the attorney general's office and ignored loudly by everyone else.

Cases like that of former NYPD Sergeant Erik Duran illustrate the legal gauntlet officers increasingly face in the city. The cumulative message to rank-and-file cops is unmistakable: enforce the law and risk becoming the defendant.

When elected officials obstruct lawful proceedings, get arrested, and then file complaints against the officers who stopped them, the question isn't whether the system protects civil rights. It's whether the system still expects lawmakers to follow the law.