Ithaca Police Department officers tackled a disabled Ithaca resident to the ground after the resident attempted to wrap yarn around an AI-powered Flock Safety camera and later waved their walking stick at an officer on Feb. 19.
The Ithacan, 54-year-old Matthew Baker, who goes by Tam, has Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, a condition that causes chronic pain and requires them to use a walking stick.
After being tackled, Tam sustained multiple injuries, including fractures and a concussion, that worsened their CRPS symptoms and forced them to use crutches to walk, according to medical documents Tam sent to The Sun.
“I Am Disabled, I Am Disabled”
On the afternoon of Feb. 19, IPD received a call claiming someone was wrapping a rope around a Flock camera at the intersection of Seneca and Meadow streets in an attempt to tear it down, according to IPD Chief Thomas Kelly.
Flock Safety, founded in 2017, uses AI algorithms to identify license plates through cameras. Flock cameras were set up around the city of Ithaca in 2025, though the Common Council recently voted to end their contract with the company over concerns that Flock would share data with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Tam was wrapping pieces of blue yarn below the camera and burning incense on the snow when an officer confronted them, driving a patrol car onto the sidewalk at around 3:30 p.m., according to both Tam.
The responding officer, Zachary Dorn, told Tam they were “destroying city property,” Tam said in an interview with The Sun.
Tam disagreed with this characterization, telling The Sun that throwing the yarn was equivalent to “somebody throwing sneakers over a telephone [wire],” and that the yarn would not damage city property.
During an interview with The Sun, Kelly and IPD Deputy Chief Anthony Bellamy said Dorn’s bodycam footage is unavailable because his camera was dropped during the incident. The Sun reviewed CCTV footage from Yazzy’s Market and bodycam footage from an additional officer who was later called for backup.
The footage has not been made available to the public, Kelly said, as Tam’s case for criminal tampering is active in the Ithaca city court.
Tam has pleaded not guilty.
Tam disputes that the body camera was dropped, saying that they “made sure” to look into the lens of Dorn’s body camera.
“I saw it the whole time, up until the point where he pepper sprayed me,” Tam said.
The route taken by Tam throughout the altercation.
According to Tam, Dorn threatened to pepper spray them after Tam called the arrest “unconstitutional.” Tam said they responded by telling Dorn they would hit Dorn in the head with their walking stick.
Dorn then followed Tam across the parking lot of West End Liquor towards the direction of Yazzy’s Market, according to CCTV footage viewed by The Sun.
In the parking lot of Yazzy’s, Dorn unsuccessfully tried to grab the walking stick from Tam, who swung the stick towards him, according to CCTV footage reviewed by The Sun.
At this point, Kelly said that it would have been appropriate for Dorn to use force to take the stick away, but officers were “familiar with [Tam], so they're trying to work with [them].”
According to Tam, Dorn then began to chase them while they used their walking stick. “He says, ‘Give me that stick.’ I say, ‘This is my walking assistance,’” Tam said.
As Dorn continued trying to take Tam’s walking stick, Tam said they looked into Dorn’s body camera and said, “De-escalate — isn’t that your job?”
Tam was pepper sprayed after spinning with their stick near the entrance to Chuck’s Self-Service Mobile, according to Kelly.
Tam continued to walk into the middle of State Street after being pepper sprayed, blocking traffic, according to bodycam footage reviewed by The Sun.
Pepper spraying, Kelly said, is used as “a lower threshold” alternative to a taser but can be used for situations involving “physical resistance.”
After pepper spraying Tam, Dorn called for backup. Minutes later, four additional officers arrived at the scene, along with a paramedic, according to Tam, Kelly and bodycam footage reviewed by The Sun.
In bodycam footage reviewed by The Sun, another police officer pulls out a taser and yells at Tam to “get on the f*cking ground or you’re going to get tased” while Tam repeatedly asks “What did I do?” Soon after, an officer yells, “Get him!”
After officers yelled for Tam to get on the ground, Tam initially refused to be handcuffed and was then pushed to the ground.
“You are hurting me,” Tam yelled to officers while they held Tam’s head against the ground and kept their right leg in a lock, according to bodycam footage viewed by The Sun.
“I am disabled, I am disabled, I am disabled,” Tam repeatedly shouts in the footage.
“Within Policy”
Tam said they spent eight hours at the hospital after the incident, and said officers rushed them to leave the hospital. Tam said they urinated themselves on the miles-long walk home from the hospital because they were not offered a ride home.
At that point, Kelly said that Tam had likely been given an appearance ticket, meaning they were no longer under police supervision and transportation could be arranged by the hospital.
Tam argued there were other avenues officers could have taken to handcuff them.
The officers could have “put me up against a car,” Tam said. “There were cars all around.” Instead, “they threw me down [on] the street.”
Kelly said officers did attempt to de-escalate, and that “ultimately, [Tam] makes the decision on force being used.”
“The officers are very professional,” Kelly said, adding that police “walked a whole city block in trying to gain [their] voluntary compliance. And unfortunately, [their] choices were to not stop and talk to the officer.”
To Tam, it “seems like malice all the way around.”
“From what we’ve seen — witnesses and different camera footage from the scene, in our eyes [it was] within policy,” Kelly said, adding that an initial investigation by IPD also reached that conclusion.
IPD’s use of force guidelines advise officers to use force if it “reasonably appears necessary,” and to consider immediacy, conduct and mental state, among other factors.
“We review all Use of Force incidents. In accordance with our policy, Professional Standards has been in contact with [Tam],” Kelly wrote in an email statement to The Sun.
The Feb. 19 confrontation was not the first time Dorn, who pepper sprayed Tam, has been involved in a contentious use of force case.
Dorn was sued in 2019, alongside three other IPD officers, for another use of force incident. Video footage of the interaction shows officers tackling two Ithaca residents, Rose DeGroat and Cadji Ferguson, tasing both and pepper spraying DeGroat after DeGroat struck an officer.
Officers were initially attempting to break up a fight between Ferguson and a third, unidentified, individual.
The suit was referred to mandatory mediation out of court in 2023.
“I Don’t Have a Future”
Tam said that they were motivated to attempt to cover the Flock camera with yarn in response to recent “Flock off” protests in Ithaca as well as their belief that Peter Thiel, the right-wing billionaire co-founder of PayPal and Palantir Technologies, was “behind” Flock. While Thiel was an early investor in Flock, he does not currently oversee operations.
Tam said they acted alone, and “intuitively,” adding “I only worry about things for the future generation. I don’t have a future.”
After being hit by a truck in 2018, Tam has lived with Stage 4 CRPS, a chronic nerve condition which currently has no treatments or cure. CRPS is often not recognized by doctors or insurance companies because there are few ways to diagnose it. Stage 4 of CRPS is the final stage and specifically includes muscle atrophy and enlarged blood vessels.
Tam retained a fractured fibula and tibia, sprained wrists, bruised ribs, abrasions on their head and a concussion due to the police encounter, which exacerbated their CRPS.
Although IPD was aware that Tam was being treated at the hospital, Kelly said they have not yet been able to verify Tam’s injuries.
Since the confrontation with police, Tam has experienced consistent pins and needles, and is able to only comfortably eat, sleep and sit still.
The incident, Tam said, shows “the level of compassion the police department has for a citizen of their own city, as opposed to the possible tampering of a $2,500 camera which became obsolete within a week,” referring to the Common Council’s March 4 vote to end the city’s Flock contract.
Atticus Johnson is a member of the Class of 2028 in the College of Arts and Sciences. He is a senior writer for the News department and can be reached at ajohnson@cornellsun.com.
Shubha Gautam is a member of the Class of 2028 in the College of Arts and Sciences. She is a senior writer for the News department and can be reached at sgautam@cornellsun.com.
