By Bill Anderson
Earlier this summer, 16-year-old Kahreem Tribble had a
confrontation with three NYPD officers. Surveillance video shows Tribble appear
to put his hands up and try to surrender when one police officer punches him in
the face while another officer points his gun at him and as he's backing up
appears to hit Tribble in the face with the gun. As the teen lays on the ground
he is then punched again. While this video shows the aftermath of what happened
to Tribble, what happened before that which resulted in this excessive force
remains a mystery.
Tribble's mother says that he came home with cracked teeth, a cut
up mouth and she doesn't understand why it would escalate to this. She went on
to explain how she can't even bring herself to watch the video.
“I can't see that because it's disturbing. It looks like
somebody's being abused, hurt and that's my son, I don't want to see it,” she said
holding back tears.
Initially Tribble did face charges. He was charged with possession
of marijuana, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. His attorney, Amy
Rameau, said that the charges were eventually dismissed because there is no
indication that he did anything wrong.
“There's never any legitimate reason for this type of conduct.
This type of conduct should never be tolerated. There is no excuse for what
they did to that boy,” she said.
The NYPD was contacted for comment, but at this time they were
only able to say that this case continues to be investigated by internal
affairs.
In the meantime, Rameau also said that this behavior isn't an
isolated incident.
“This isn't a first. All three of these officers have been sued
for civil rights violations. All three,” she said.
It remains to be seen if these officers will face charges. Two of
the officers were initially suspended; however the officer who threw the first
punch has since been reassigned to desk duty. The second officer who hit
Tribble with the gun has been suspended without pay. The third officer, who
shows up in the video at the end, has not been suspended at this time.
Political blogger and Emmy Award winning host Dee Dee Benkie feels
like something had to have happened before the video surveillance caught the
cop's reactions.
“This looks like these officers were provoked somehow. It is hard
to believe they're just gonna start punching a guy. I mean what happened
before? Did he throw a knife? Was he punching at them? What did he do? You see people
go crazy all the time, we just don't know and I think that's a little unfair,”
she said.
