A police officer has been suspended after a video showed him repeatedly hitting a teenage girl in the head with a fist during a clash between several officers and at least a dozen young men close to one. high school on Staten Island on Tuesday.
Mayor Eric Adams, who addressed the case on Wednesday in an unrelated meeting Press Conference in Brooklyn, said he first learned of the argument Tuesday night when he watched the show eight seconds videotapes clips on social networks.
Mr Adams said: “I was not satisfied with what I saw. He said he spoke that night with Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell, who he said promptly suspended the officer.
His reprimand appeared to differ from his reaction last year after a video emerged showing a detective beat a woman to the ground during an altercation when her boyfriend was arrested. Mr. Adams was quick to defend the detective, drawing criticism.
Mr. Adams, a former police captain, often praises the Police Department. During the press conference, he said that New Yorkers trust the police and that events like Tuesday’s “will not erode the relationship that the people of this city have with men and women.” of the New York City Police Department.”
According to a statement from Julian Phillips, deputy police commissioner in charge of public information, the incident occurred on Tuesday afternoon when two officers tasked with guarding an after-school school witnessed an incident. A big fight broke out between a group of girls.
The officers intervened. But when one of them tried to arrest one of the girls, a 14-year-old girl who got involved in the melee grabbed the officer’s handcuffs and hit him in the head, Mr. Phillips said.
What happened next appeared to be captured on video: As the group moved along the sidewalk, the officer appeared to lean over and push the girl backwards as the second officer tried to grab her. Her head is down and her arms are raised to support them.
The officer then appeared with his right fist and hit the girl on the head as other children gathered around, holding up their cell phones to record the incident. Two young men appeared to try to pull the girl back as the officer continued to attack.
“Did he hit her?” a person speaking on video. Another shouted, “You can’t do that!”
The officer appears to have hit the girl at least six times with his fist before the clip ended.
Mr Phillips said the teenager was detained by police and taken to a hospital where she was treated and later released.
The officer, a 14-year Police Department veteran assigned to Division 121 on Staten Island, has been suspended without pay pending an internal investigation, he added. The officer’s name has not been released.
Patrick J. Lynch, president of the Police Benevolent Association, the city’s police officers’ association, has called for a thorough investigation.
“The police officers involved are entitled to due process rights, not summary judgments based on a few seconds of video,” Mr. Lynch said.
Nathaniel Styer, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Education, said Wednesday that the agency cannot release personal information about students and declined to comment on whether young people in the video attended. IS 51 Edwin Markham, nearby or not.
Kamillah Hanks, a City Council member representing the county where the scuffle took place, wrote on Twitter that the clash happened right after school. She said she asked the police agency to investigate.
“I am encouraged by the NYPD’s prompt and appropriate response to this matter,” she wrote. “Let me be clear – violence against our children is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”
