The NYPD has relegated an officer to desk duty after video of him stomping a handcuffed man's head into the ground emerged.
The New York Daily News reports that Officer Joel Edouard attempted to take Jahmiel Cuffee into custody for suspicion of marijuana possession in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant section on Wednesday evening. According to the Daily News, police spotted Cuffee, 32, rolling a joint in the middle of the street.
However, the video shows Edouard stomping Cuffee's head into the sidewalk. The man filming the video, as well as the crowd that had gathered, can be heard yelling in outrage.
Police sources told the Daily News that Cuffee was hospitalized with injuries to his neck and head, though he was charged with marijuana possession, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest. Meanwhile, Edouard was forced to turn in his gun and badge.
This incident comes after footage of NYPD officers placing a man in a headlock in Harlem surfaced on Wednesday, and following the death of Eric Garner, who lost consciousness and died after being choked by an officer in Staten Island last Thursday. Both incidents are being reviewed by the department's internal affairs division, and Officer Daniel Pantaleo, the officer who choked Garner, was also ordered to relinquish his gun and badge.
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[via New York Daily News]
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