NYPD reassigns 6 Brooklyn narcotics detectives after violent arrest caught on camera
LOWER MANHATTAN (WABC) -- Civil rights activists want the NYPD to take further action after video captured officers punching and kicking a man as they tried to take him into custody last week.
Police thought the man had been involved in a drug deal, but later determined they had the wrong guy.
Six Brooklyn North narcotics detectives, along with a captain and a lieutenant, are being transferred to other precincts in Brooklyn and Queens after cellphone video showed two detectives brutally beating a man who turned out to be the wrong suspect.
The two detectives seen in the video were immediately placed on modified duty and stripped of their guns and badges.
The sergeant who was the immediate supervisor of the two detectives at the time of the arrest is now also on modified duty and stripped of his gun, badge, and all supervisory duties.
Witness-recorded cellphone video shows the detectives punching, kicking and shoving the man for several minutes, continuing even after he was handcuffed.
Witnesses said the officers never identified themselves or gave the man a chance to put his hands up, and that as soon as they entered a liquor store in Cobble Hill, they immediately started pummeling him.
Activists met with the police commissioner at NYPD headquarters on Monday and demanded accountability.
Among their demands, activists called for narcotics detectives to be equipped with body-worn cameras and for officers with more than 15 complaints to be subject to an independent audit.
Officials said the body-worn cameras for narcotics detectives is already a policy and the detectives in question did not have them on.
The Rev. Kevin McCall said the police commissioner promised to disband the entire unit.
"She committed to disbanding the entire unit. She got them all, she transferred them but she said that she's gonna disband the entire unit in its entirety until she feels comfortable when the unit should be started back up," McCall said.
Police say the commissioner promised to disband a module, which is a team within the unit. The six detectives and captain and lieutenant were transferred on Friday, so it was disbanded before the activists made the request.
Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner, also called for criminal accountability.
"We need these officers to stand accountable. We need transparency. And we need when they are found wrong to go to jail as one of us would if we abused another citizen as they abused the citizens of New York," Carr said.
An NYPD spokesperson said the commissioner met with activists as part of an ongoing conversation with community members about a variety of concerns.
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