This Article is From Oct 10, 2014

New York Police Caught in Fresh Assault of Teens

New York Police Caught in Fresh Assault of Teens

A crowd gathers near the scene in St. Louis where a man was fatally shot by an off-duty police officer on Wednesday. (Associated Press)

New York: New videos have emerged showing New York police assaulting teenage marijuana suspects, raising fresh questions about officer brutality three months after a black father of six died in custody.

One of the videos, which quickly went viral, shows a plainclothes officer apparently knocking unconscious in broad daylight a teenager on suspicion of smoking marijuana in Brooklyn.

"You wanna get fucked up?" the officer threatens.

The suspect, identified as a 17-year-old by local media, lies on the curb, screaming in pain as the officer wedges his foot into his pelvis area.

The young man insists he was only smoking tobacco.

"Mister, it was just a cigarette, sir," he says. "It was just a cigarette."

The knockout blow is audible but not visible on the tape.

"You knocked him out, you knocked him out," a bystander shouts followed by: "wake him up, wake him up."

New York police, the largest urban force in the United States, is investigating the incident, along with a string of similar alleged cases of brutality.

Local media said the officer has been suspended and another officer stripped of his gun and badge.

A second video, obtained by DNAinfo New York, shows another young man, reportedly a 16-year-old, being punched in the face and pistol-whipped after a brief chase in Brooklyn in August.

Promises of police reform

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio took office this year with a promise to reform police tactics and repair distrust between the force and the public, particularly black and Hispanic communities.

Yet another video emerged this week, obtained by the New York Daily News, in which an officer allegedly removes money from a man during a nighttime stop-and-frisk in Coney Island, Brooklyn.

Local media said the man complained that $1,300 was stolen and that he was pepper-sprayed when he demanded it back.

Police said the incident was precipitated by a call of a man with a gun.

"When officers arrived at the scene, they encountered numerous people at the location. As a result of the allegations, the matter is under investigation," said Kim Royster, deputy chief of the public information division.

New York police has been increasingly under the spotlight since Eric Garner, 43, a father of six died after being was wrestled to the ground by several white police officers on July 17.

Garner, accused of illegally selling cigarettes, resisted arrest and was put in an outlawed "chokehold" position.

His family announced Tuesday that they intended to sue the city and police for $75 million.

Weeks after his death, cell phone footage captured in September showed a pregnant woman being thrown to the ground by police after she tried to intervene in her teenage son's arrest in Brooklyn.

A female friend who came to help was also shown being shoved and rolling along the road in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

Yet another video showed a police officer kicking a street vendor in the back when he was already on the ground during an altercation at the end of a Brooklyn street fair in September.

Police said the officer was suspended during an investigation.
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