Cop caught berating Uber driver
in xenophobic rant is NYPD detective, police sources say
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
The angry lawman who was caught
on camera belittling an Uber driver during a bias-fueled tirade in the West
Village is an NYPD detective assigned to the Joint Terrorism Task Force, police
sources confirmed Tuesday.
The NYPD’s Internal Affairs
Bureau is investigating the video, which shows Det.
Patrick Cherry lambasting the Uber driver during a traffic stop
and mocking his broken English.
“I don't know where you're
coming from, where you think you're appropriate in doing that; that's not the
way it works. How long have you been in this country?” Cherry, who is white,
barked at the driver after pulling him over in an unmarked car with flashing
lights, according to video of the encounter.
The roadside rage erupted after
the detective tried to park the unmarked car without using his blinker, and the
Uber driver went around him and gestured to him to use his signal, according to
Sanjay Seth, a passenger in the Uber car who posted the video clip.
The car Cherry drives in the
video does not belong to the NYPD, according to a police source.
The angry cop yelling at an
Uber driver and mocking him, is NYPD Detective Patrick Cherry, police sources
said.
Moments before slamming the car
door and storming away, the hot-headed Cherry, who is based out of Federal
Plaza in Manhattan, shouted at the driver: “I don't know what f---ing planet
you're on right now!”
The detective repeatedly mocked
the mild-mannered driver's accent and pronunciation of English words, cursing
at him. The driver responded calmly, saying “okay” during one point in Cherry's
tirade, the video shows. The driver's ethnicity was not immediately clear.
The driver filed a complaint
with police, which prompted the NYPD to assign the case to the Internal Affairs
Bureau.
“IAB will look at the
circumstances and determine if a duty status change is required," a
high-ranking police source said, referring to the process that will be followed
to determine if Cherry should be punished.
The incident will be handed
over to the Civilian Complaint Review Board, cop sources said, because it was
determined that Cherry committed no other wrongdoing besides being
discourteous, the sources said.
Seth wrote on the video's
YouTube page that the incident happened in the West Village.
Cherry was on his way to work
after visiting Detective Harry Hill at NYU Langone Medical Center when the
interaction occurred, a police source said. Hill is in critical condition after
going into cardiac arrest during a procedure on his elbow on Thursday, the
source said.
Michael Palladino, president of
the Detectives Endowment Association, said Hill's medical condition has led
emotions to run high on the Joint Terrorism Task Force, a unit that combines
NYPD and federal anti-terror investigators.
"The past five days have
been emotionally draining for the members of the JTTF dealing with their fellow
detective's health," Palladino said. "Despite what some people think,
cops have feelings, too."
An Uber spokesman, Matt Wing,
confirmed the driver filed a complaint, but said he was not issued a ticket.
Wing declined to name the driver.
Two passengers in the backseat
assured the Uber driver that he did nothing wrong, and said the detective who
pulled him over was on a "power trip."
According to the video, during
the brief moments when Cherry backed off his harangue, Seth and a fellow
passenger assured the driver he did nothing wrong.
"It's not your fault; this
guy's just a d--k," one of passengers says on the video, adding that the
detective was on a "power trip."
The shell-shocked driver kept
offering apologies, but Cherry did not stop browbeating him.
"You don't let me f---ing
finish! Stop interrupting me!" Cherry tells him.
At the end of the three-minute
tirade, the man tells the driver the only reason he's not getting arrested is
because he's "not important enough."
Seth posted the video to his
Facebook page Monday afternoon, identifying the driver as "Humayun"
and titling the clip, "Police Abuse of Uber Driver in New York City."
"Our Uber driver, Humayun,
was abused by a police officer today in New York," Seth wrote. "The
unending rage, door slamming, throwing items into the car, threatening arrest
without cause was bad enough — but the officer's remarks at the end really took
it to another level."
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