With clenched fists and teary eyes, residents recalled their fearful encounters with the authorities. Some claimed police stopped them and demanded identification for no reason. Others said they were physically restrained without cause. Mothers screamed about teenage children being repeatedly harassed by officers.
   Arlene Perez, who is black and Hispanic, fought tears as she recalled her interaction with two white officers in 2004. Perez had phoned police to report that her landlord was harassing her following a dispute in housing court. When the two officers, a male and female, came to the Rosedale home, the landlord told police Perez’s 17 year old daughter had assaulted her, Perez said.
   “They (officers) said to me, ‘Put your hands behind your back,’” said Perez, a school teacher. “I’ve never hurt anybody.”
   Perez said that after she had been handcuffed, the officers slammed her daughter’s face on the squad car before taking her into custody. The daughter suffered a swollen lip and injured ribs. Officials then reported the daughter “took down two officers,” Perez said.
   Perez is suing the city, the Police Department and the landlord. She won’t say where she and her daughter live now.
   Eric Clay, a black man, said he was attacked by a white undercover officer last summer near his South Jamaica home. The New York City Transit employee approached his car near an E train station after bicycling in Manhattan. When he opened the rear car door to put in his bike, the officer allegedly came at him from behind.
   “Someone sat on my back and put my arm behind my head,” Clay said. He then claimed a second officer pointed a gun at his face.
   “I was shook,” he added. “My heart was pounding out of my chest.”
   The officers told Clay there was a string of car thefts in the area. They released him after Clay proved it was his car.
   Real estate broker Fritz Pierre Louis, a native of Haiti, said he was arrested outside his office in St. Albans for having a suspended license. Pierre Louis, who speaks with an accent, said police mocked him while he was being booked. One officer allegedly asked if he shot a cop. “I don’t wish that (treatment) on my worst enemy,” he said.
   Police dropped the charge, but Pierre Louis said he will always remember the anger he felt when leaving the jail. “I wanted to blow up every precinct,” he said.
   Last Thursday’s forum was the latest community gathering following the police shooting of Sean Bell on Nov. 25. A grand jury has been empaneled to hear the case, although it won’t be expected to begin before late January. Meanwhile, the Rev. Al Sharpton asked State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo last week to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate.
   Anger at the forum, however, was not directed at District Attorney Richard Brown or his investigation, but rather at Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
   “Kelly needs to be fired,” said Viola Plummer, chairwoman of the December 12th Movement. “We have an apartheid situation going on (among police authority).”
   Noel Leader, a retired police officer and member of 100 Blacks In Law Enforcement Who Care, said Kelly “is out of control” and all the NYPD can do well is “prosecute black people.”
   Representing the Police Department at the gathering was Lt. Lamont Jasper, commander of the NYPD Community Affairs Bureau for Queens. He urged residents to speak at precinct community council meetings and contact their local precinct house if they feel authority is being abused.
   “Stay in the faces of your precinct commander,” Jasper said.
   When asked if Kelly should be fired, Jasper, who is black, did not reply.
   Accounts of police brutality reported Thursday were being collected by the December 12th Movement. The organization plans to create a report on racism and present it to the United Nations later this month. The group has been collecting accounts throughout the country for this project.