Multiple troubling videos appeared on social media of a New York police officer dubbed the ‘Grappling Cop’ behaving irregularly.
First, he was filmed in plain clothes, taking part in an arrest using a Kimura and head scissors. When someone filming got too close, the officer pulled his gun and threatened to shoot. Taken on its own, this could be an understandable action.
However, when the officer left the building, another individual was filming with a cell phone, and the officer punched him on the face.
Ashley Southal for the New York Times provided further details.
A plainclothes New York City police officer was stripped of his gun and badge on Friday after cellphone video emerged showing him drawing his weapon on bystanders while making an arrest in Harlem, then punching a man who was videotaping the episode, the authorities said.
The officer, who was assigned to the anticrime unit in the 32nd Precinct, in Harlem, was placed on modified duty until the Internal Affairs Bureau completes its investigation, the police said. Officials did not release his name, and a spokesman for the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association did not return messages seeking comment.
In the video the officer is seen leaving the lobby of an apartment building on Thursday evening and walking up to a man in a camouflage jacket who is holding up a cellphone. The officer suddenly punches the man, and they stumble before hitting the ground a few feet away.
The police identified the man the officer was seen punching as Jahnico Harvey, 19. Mr. Harvey was arrested and charged with menacing and disorderly conduct, and was issued a desk appearance ticket, officials said. Contact information for him was not available.
Earlier in the video, which was credited to a man named Calvin West, the officer and his partner are on the ground with a suspect under them. The officer pulls out a gun and points it at the cameraman, who appears to be several feet away.
Move, Mr. West told NY1 the officer said to him. Get out of here. I’m not playing with you all. I’ll shoot.
The police said the episode unfolded after two uniformed officers stopped a driver who had double-parked near 480 St. Nicholas Avenue in Central Harlem around 6:40 p.m. As the officers were conducting the stop, two men on dirt bikes encircled them, according to the police. When the officers turned their attention to the dirt bikes, the driver and his passenger fled on foot, as did the dirt bike riders, the police said.
A sergeant and an officer responding to the officers’ backup call over the radio spotted one of the dirt bike riders running into the lobby of the building, where they apprehended him.
The man, Dayshawn Bettway, 21, was arrested and charged with assault, reckless endangerment, obstruction and resisting arrest. The police said Mr. Bettway had body-slammed a resident who opened a door to see what the commotion was about. Mr. Bettway, who was in custody, could not be reached for comment on Friday.
Mr. Harvey and Mr. Bettway were not armed, the police said.
Officers later learned that the car, a 2015 Hyundai sedan, was stolen from Connecticut, the police said, and they found ammunition and marijuana inside it. The driver of the car and his passenger, as well as the second dirt bike rider, had not been caught as of Friday evening, the police said.
H/T: BJJEE
