Another video has surfaced on social media showing New York City Police Department (NYPD) officers being harassed and even threatened.
The 60-second video posted by The Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York union on Tuesday shows two on-duty police officers on the subway near a citizen who began verbally harassing one of the officers, even challenging them to “put hands” on him so he would have “every right to defend himself,” the New York Post reported.
Watch the exchange below:
**WARNING: GRAPHIC LANGUAGE**
For anybody who thinks yesterday’s videos were isolated incidents: NYC POs are confronting this kind of abuse, or worse, on a daily basis. We’re past the point of “disrespect.” This behavior is inciting lawlessness, putting cops & NYers in danger. pic.twitter.com/hHKJtlvpm5— NYC PBA (@NYCPBA) July 23, 2019
In response to the man’s self-defense claim, the officer said, “Oh, you do? You think so?”
The man replied, “Yeah, so put your hands on me. I’ll f–k you up.”
The man kept on with his rant, stepping closer to the officer and began repeating, “Suck my d–k.”
“Freedom of speech, I’m not doing nothing,” the man said.
“I understand,” the officer said, appearing to remain calm throughout the exchange.
In a tweet with the video, the police union said, “NYC POs are confronting this kind of abuse, or worse, on a daily basis. We’re past the point of ‘disrespect’. This behavior is inciting lawlessness, putting cops & NYers in danger.”
This is just one example of how the NYPD has suffered harassment in recent weeks and are dealing with increasingly hostile working conditions.
Last week, social media videos went viral of citizens dousing NYC police officers with buckets of water while they were making an arrest in Harlem, and again after officers were walking back to their vehicle following a call in Brownsville.
In the incident when police were arresting a man in Harlem, one man threw an empty bucket at the officer’s head while the crowd hoots, the video shows.
The NYPD issued a statement saying the officer who was hit with the bucket “suffered pain and swelling to the back of his head,” CNN reported.
PBA President Patrick Lynch said, “The NYPD has issued guidance regarding the offenses for which a police officer could make an arrest in these situations. But our district attorneys are almost universally refusing to prosecute these same offenses, and new laws passed this year in Albany will require cops to merely issue a ticket for these and many other crimes.”
“The NYPD is now frozen. Disorder controls the streets, and our elected leaders refuse to allow us to take them back,” Lynch said. “As police officers we need to draw a line. In situations like this, we need to take action to protect ourselves and the public.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted and called the attacks, “completely unacceptable.”
Completely unacceptable. A video from the 28 Precinct shows people interfering in an arrest by throwing water and objects at officers. The NYPD kept New Yorkers safe through the heatwave and last night’s outages. We won’t tolerate this kind of disrespect. NYPD is investigating. https://t.co/3Yg7f0eAs8
— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) July 22, 2019
He added, “The NYPD kept New Yorkers safe through the heatwave and last night’s outages. We won’t tolerate this kind of disrespect.”
