From [HERE] Two New York Police Department officers repeatedly slammed a man's head into the ground while trying to handcuff him during a traffic stop on the morning of New Year's Eve. Part of the encounter in the city's Bronx borough was recorded on video, filmed from inside a bus across the street. It was the latest in an endless history of police brutality allegations against the city's unacountable police force.
The video shows three white officers, two male and one female, pinning a man to the ground. One of the male officers proceeds to punch, and then slap, the man in the head, while the other male officer puts him in handcuffs. Any words exchanged between offers and civilian aren't audible. As the bus pulls away, the man is being held against the side of the NYPD van.
The incident took place on East 149th Street between Cauldwell Avenue and Trinity Avenue, in front of a bus stop serving the Bronx 17 and 19 routes. The stop is adjacent to the NYCHA-run Moore Houses, in Mott Haven.
The video was first posted to the Facebook page of a person named Alexis Jasmin. Jasmin wrote that the man had been in his car following an encounter with the police. She said the officers were "getting ready to pull off" when they changed course, exiting the van and approaching the man.
"Granted the man did stick his head out the window and say a few choice words," she wrote. "But please tell me why the cops got out the van, snatched him out of his car and proceeded to do this to him."
"This is exactly why i [sic] hate the police," she added. "His hands were already tied and he kept hitting the man in the face until bloody. RIDICULOUS!!"
Voices can be heard while the video was being recorded sounding incredulous, saying things like "Why are they hitting him?" and "his [expletive] face is bleeding."
"The matter is under internal review," a police spokesperson told the Gothamist. However, the NYPD would not provide key information, such as the name of the person who was beaten, the nature of the traffic stop and what he was arrested for.