After footage showing a violent confrontation between NYPD officers and pedestrians in a Brooklyn neighborhood emerged, the police department has suspended one of its officers.
The incident took place Sunday evening in Brooklyn's Sunset Park section, when police were trying to bring an end to the Fifth Avenue Festival, which ran about 30 minutes over its scheduled time. Police officers ordered vendors to leave, and when the vendors didn't do so quick enough, a dispute—which soon turned physical—erupted.
Just before the video's 2:30 mark, an officer can be seen kicking a man (who was being subdued on the ground) in the back of the head. That officer has since been suspended. NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton expressed his concern over the incident today, and provided more insight into the action that's been taken against the offending officer.
"I was very concerned with a video that was taken and the actions of one of our officers who was seen kicking an individual," he said, according to NY1. "As best I could tell looking at that video it seemed to be totally unprovoked. That officer has been suspended and in terms of suspension in this department that means he's been relieved of his gun, his badge and his police duties."
Five people were arrested and charged with resisting arrest and obstructing governmental administration. An internal affairs investigation into the incident continues.
[via Daily Intelligencer and NY1]
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