Sunny Hostin, one of the hosts of ABC’ left-wing talk show The View, was caught on video playing a little “do you know who I am” with police last month as she tried to convince officers not to arrest her son during a trespassing violation.
The TV host’s son, Gabriel, was stopped on June 16 by police along Metro-North Railroad tracks in Westchester County under suspicion of “criminal trespassing,” but it wasn’t long before Hostin showed up to try and talk her son out of an arrest. Her interaction with police was caught on police bodycam video, the New York Post reported.
Police were called after Hostin’s son was seen “on the right-of-way of the active railroad tracks, in violation of the posted no trespassing sign.”
He told officers that he was out jogging and saw the gates to the tracks were open, so he went in.
But as he was being arrested, Hostin suddenly appeared on the scene and is seen in the video telling officers, “My name is Sunny Hostin and I’m one of the co-hosts of The View and I’m a former federal prosecutor.”
At another point, she added, “I’m a former federal prosecutor. He knows. He’s a Harvard grad who teaches 4th grade geometry to South Bronx kids.”
“He’s not a kid who’s ever in trouble. It’s an innocent mistake,” she also exclaimed.
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Video also showed Gabriel trying to talk the police out of arresting him or issuing him a citation.
“Is this necessary?” he asked the officers before attempting to convince them not to issue him a summons, saying, “What happens if you didn’t do it?”
The officers explained that he was engaging in an “arrestable offense.”
“Because it is an arrestable offense. I want to make that clear, okay? Where you were on the tracks is an arrestable offense,” an officer can be heard explaining on the video.
The officer also explained that they were already giving Gabriel a huge break and not arresting him outright.
“We’re dimming it down to a trespass violation because you were in the right-of-way, you weren’t in the gauge or anything, which is the middle area where the tracks were on,” The officer said. “And you’ve been very cooperative with us and you have a good background, everything like that. We know you’re not a criminal or anything like that but our hands are tied with cameras everywhere.”
Since the arrest, Hostin, sent a statement to Westchester Assistant District Attorney Amanda Greene claiming that her son saw a gravel grade inside the fencing and thought he could use the grade for “hill training.”
“When jogging, he observed what appeared to be a gravel incline that could be used for hill training,” Hostin’s statement said. “Although there was a gate at the entrance of the gravel incline, the gates were standing open.”
“The only ‘No Trespassing’ sign was affixed to the left gate and, because the gates were open, it was not visible to my client as he entered the property,” she claimed.
Hostin has repeatedly told her The View audience that she constantly fears her son being gunned down by police merely because he’s black. Yet, this incident clearly shows officers being respectful and calm with Gabriel and then giving him a huge break by not arresting him and, instead, giving him a citation, despite that it would be perfectly in keeping with the law to arrest him and take him to jail.
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