by Thomas L. Scott
The New York police officer who was caught on
camera punching a Black teenager who was already in police custody has been
suspended while the New York Police Department Internal Affairs Bureau
investigates the arrest.
“An individual that we have
identified as a plainclothes anti-crime officer runs up and appears to strike
the individual with a closed fist twice on the side of the body,” New York
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said Monday. “That officer has been suspended
pending the investigation going forward.”
The NYPD announced the
suspension on Friday, but they didn’t reveal the name of the officer.
In New York City and around the
country, people have been protesting for months against police brutality and
racial profiling. The lack of trust between police and the communities they are
supposed to protect has encouraged bystanders to gather their own proof and use
video to attempt to hold police accountable. A police brutality witness in
Staten Island used his cellphone to record NYPD officer, Daniel Pantaleo,
putting Eric Garner, an unarmed Black man, in the chokehold that ultimately
killed him. Despite the video evidence, Pantaleo wasn’t indicted by the grand
jury.
The Black teenager who was
assaulted by the officer was 16-year-old Denzel Funderburk, according to a CBS
New York. He and two other teenagers, 16 and 17, were arrested on Dec. 15
because they were suspected of assaulting someone with a cane. The three
teenagers were charged with gang assault. Funderburk was also charged with
assault, obstruction, criminal possession of a weapon and other charges,
according to CBS New York.
The charges were dropped before
the video was released on the Wednesday following the arrest, New York Daily
News reported.
The video of the arrest, which
was posted on Dec. 17, showed the Black teenager pinned against the hood of a
car by three officers as the plainclothes cop rushes in to deliver at least two
body punches.
Police procedure expert and
professor at John Jay College, Robert McRie, said that police officers who
attack suspects that have already been subdued are subject to disciplinary
action.
“There doesn’t seem to be any
legitimate reason for it,” McRie told CBS. “He wasn’t moving at the time the
blows were delivered and he was in no position to escape.”