I suspect that a good many police departments have invisibility cloaks on their high tech Christmas wish lists. This whole business of being caught on camera while beating the shit out of defenseless handcuffed citizens is just really inconvenient and not good for the image.
NYPD officers in fresh assault claims: 'They were taking turns like a gang'
The New York police department is facing renewed questions over the conduct of its personnel after a man alleged he was viciously assaulted without provocation by a group of uniformed officers.
Santiago Hernandez, 23, claims that he was kicked, punched and zapped with pepper spray by up to six officers in 157th Street in the Bronx on 18 August. A video of his arrest captured by a nearby security camera and published by the local TV channel ABC 7 shows the police initially frisking him, then handcuffing him and finally piling on top of Hernandez as he lay on the sidewalk while apparently hitting him with batons.
“They was taking turns on me. One kicks me, he steps back. Another one comes to punch me and he steps back. And another one comes and grabs my arm and hits me like 10 times with the baton. Another one comes and pepper sprayed me … they were taking turns like a gang,” he told ABC 7.
The new allegations, that are being investigated by the NYPD’s internal affairs section, come at a difficult time for the force and its high-profile commissioner Bill Bratton. A grand jury has been called to decide whether to bring charges against an NYPD officer involved in the attempted arrest in Staten Island of Eric Garner for selling loose cigarettes.
This kind of racial profiling and brutal treatment is not anything new. What is somewhat new is that recent incidents have given the media a renewed appetite for the subject. It will take a lot more attention to the problem to create the kind of public demand to force real change in the biased police system.