A police officer making an arrest in New York’s East Village over the weekend for a social distancing violation punched a bystander several times to the ground after threatening him with a Taser, a video shows, the New York Daily News has reported.
Police said the bystander, had been ordered to disperse, but instead “took a fighting stance,” an action which was not caught on tape.
The NYPD said the officer felt threatened and that he suffered an unspecified injury in the incident, the New York Post reported.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio wrote on Twitter that he ”Saw the video from the Lower East Side and was really disturbed by it. The officer involved has been placed on modified duty and an investigation has begun. The behavior I saw in that video is simply not acceptable.”
The bystander was arrested and charged with assault on a police officer, menacing, resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration, and two counts of disorderly conduct, according to the Daily News.
In the incident a man and woman were initially arrested when they allegedly refused to disperse and resisted the attempts by policemen to handcuff them, according to the Post.
The two were charged with several counts, including resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.
As the two were resisting arrest, some onlookers gathered a few feet away from the melee, and a policeman ordered them to move back, grabbing one of the bystanders from the crowd and punching him to the ground. He was then aided by other policemen, who managed to put him in handcuffs.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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