James Blake’s mom on his rough arrest: 'No one should be treated like that, white, black, purple, green', For tennis great James Blake's mother, what happened to her son outside a Manhattan hotel was as clear as black and white.
"James was standing there," Betty Blake told the Daily News. "He wasn't running. He wasn't doing anything. All they had to do was go up to him and say. 'Excuse me sir, could I see some identification.'"
Betty Blake, 80, said her son did nothing that would justify being body-slammed by a police officer and is relieved he made no attempt to fight back.
"I'm glad he took the path of least resistance," she said. "It could have gotten really ugly."
Sitting at the dining room table of her Connecticut home with photos of her children on a table behind her, she spoke of the hard lessons she learned as a white woman married to a black man — and as the mother of two bi-racial sons.You don't think about them as being black until this kind of thing throws it back on you," she said. "And that's how it was with my husband and I. We were just happy to be with each other."
At times, she teared up — especially when she recounted how her son called her after his brief but brutal encounter with Officer James Frascatore and five other white cops."He said, 'I was just body slammed and handcuffed,'" she said. "I went, 'Oh my God! Are you all right?' That's the first thing you think about, not why."
Betty Blake said the only thing that surprises her was that her son, once the No. 4 tennis player in the world, was treated like a common criminal "in broad daylight."
"Outside the Hyatt?" she said, incredulous. "It's stunning and it brings it all back and it makes me scared, for what might happen. I mean, especially in light of what has been going on in this country."
The anguished mom said a friend of hers who works for a local newspaper told her, "My God, he could've been shot.""It doesn't bear thinking about," she said.
Mixed-marriages were not so common when Betty Blake tied the knot with Thomas Blake, who died in 2004.It's so hard for a white person to know how it must feel to be black," she added. "And I got a little inkling of that living with Tom. I had no idea."
She said people would stare when they went out as a family — and it irritated her husband.
"We faced a few (problems), Tom and I did," she added. "We were threatened. As a matter of fact, when James first started to make a little bit of a name for himself, and some publication had where I worked and where my husband worked. And right after that we both got hate letters."
Betty Blake said they turned the malevolent missives over to the FBI and "every now and then a policeman would come and check and make sure there wasn't a cross burning on the lawn."
"This was in Fairfield," she said. "This was here."When her husband imposed a strict curfew on their two sons, James and Thomas, the worried mom admitted she didn't get it at first.I wondered why," she said. "He explained it to me. He said, ‘You know, if there's ever any trouble at all with the police, who do you think they're going to pick on?' And not because Thomas is 6-foot-5, that's not going to be the issue.'"
James and Thomas "got all kinds of kidding about how mommy has to tuck you in at night," she said, laughing.
But Blake's dad was insistent the boys be home by 11:30 p.m. until they went to college.
"We would stretch it for a special occasion, like the prom or something, but he was, he was adamant."
Still, she said, there were times when she almost convinced herself that they were raising their sons in a color blind world.
"When they were in school, they were two of the most popular kids in school," she said. "If you knew them, you didn't see the color of their skin ... just like I didn't see the color of my husband's skin. He was just my husband and I loved him."
Betty Blake said she doesn't buy the NYPD's claim her son's skin color played no role in his arrest.Come on, come on," she said. "Too much of a coincidence. No one should be treated like that, white, black, purple, green, nobody should be treated like that. But it just so happens that he is black."
Asked what should happen to Officer James Frascatore, the cop who tackled her son, Betty Blake said the NYPD should "take him off the streets."
"He shouldn't have a chance to do this to anybody else," she said.
At the very least, Betty Blake said, Frascatore should have apologized.
"You say you're sorry," she said. "That's what you do."
Betty Blake said she hopes something good comes out of all this.
"I now fear for both my biracial sons," she said.
"James was standing there," Betty Blake told the Daily News. "He wasn't running. He wasn't doing anything. All they had to do was go up to him and say. 'Excuse me sir, could I see some identification.'"
Betty Blake, 80, said her son did nothing that would justify being body-slammed by a police officer and is relieved he made no attempt to fight back.
"I'm glad he took the path of least resistance," she said. "It could have gotten really ugly."
Sitting at the dining room table of her Connecticut home with photos of her children on a table behind her, she spoke of the hard lessons she learned as a white woman married to a black man — and as the mother of two bi-racial sons.You don't think about them as being black until this kind of thing throws it back on you," she said. "And that's how it was with my husband and I. We were just happy to be with each other."
At times, she teared up — especially when she recounted how her son called her after his brief but brutal encounter with Officer James Frascatore and five other white cops."He said, 'I was just body slammed and handcuffed,'" she said. "I went, 'Oh my God! Are you all right?' That's the first thing you think about, not why."
Betty Blake said the only thing that surprises her was that her son, once the No. 4 tennis player in the world, was treated like a common criminal "in broad daylight."
"Outside the Hyatt?" she said, incredulous. "It's stunning and it brings it all back and it makes me scared, for what might happen. I mean, especially in light of what has been going on in this country."
The anguished mom said a friend of hers who works for a local newspaper told her, "My God, he could've been shot.""It doesn't bear thinking about," she said.
Mixed-marriages were not so common when Betty Blake tied the knot with Thomas Blake, who died in 2004.It's so hard for a white person to know how it must feel to be black," she added. "And I got a little inkling of that living with Tom. I had no idea."
She said people would stare when they went out as a family — and it irritated her husband.
"We faced a few (problems), Tom and I did," she added. "We were threatened. As a matter of fact, when James first started to make a little bit of a name for himself, and some publication had where I worked and where my husband worked. And right after that we both got hate letters."
Betty Blake said they turned the malevolent missives over to the FBI and "every now and then a policeman would come and check and make sure there wasn't a cross burning on the lawn."
"This was in Fairfield," she said. "This was here."When her husband imposed a strict curfew on their two sons, James and Thomas, the worried mom admitted she didn't get it at first.I wondered why," she said. "He explained it to me. He said, ‘You know, if there's ever any trouble at all with the police, who do you think they're going to pick on?' And not because Thomas is 6-foot-5, that's not going to be the issue.'"
James and Thomas "got all kinds of kidding about how mommy has to tuck you in at night," she said, laughing.
But Blake's dad was insistent the boys be home by 11:30 p.m. until they went to college.
"We would stretch it for a special occasion, like the prom or something, but he was, he was adamant."
Still, she said, there were times when she almost convinced herself that they were raising their sons in a color blind world.
"When they were in school, they were two of the most popular kids in school," she said. "If you knew them, you didn't see the color of their skin ... just like I didn't see the color of my husband's skin. He was just my husband and I loved him."
Betty Blake said she doesn't buy the NYPD's claim her son's skin color played no role in his arrest.Come on, come on," she said. "Too much of a coincidence. No one should be treated like that, white, black, purple, green, nobody should be treated like that. But it just so happens that he is black."
Asked what should happen to Officer James Frascatore, the cop who tackled her son, Betty Blake said the NYPD should "take him off the streets."
"He shouldn't have a chance to do this to anybody else," she said.
At the very least, Betty Blake said, Frascatore should have apologized.
"You say you're sorry," she said. "That's what you do."
Betty Blake said she hopes something good comes out of all this.
"I now fear for both my biracial sons," she said.
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