Police Brutality On Bedford?
We didn’t witness any problems, but reports are rolling in about police brutality last night on Bedford. From our comments:
Things I witnessed:
- An officer striking the ground with his steel baton in an attempt to intimidate, breaking several glass bottles which sent shards everywhere.
- A photographer was slammed up against a trashcan, shattering his camera.
- A young girl curled in the fetal position was hit three times by an officer with a baton as her protesting boyfriend was dragged away.
- A man carrying his dog was cross-checked from behind by a cop’s baton, causing him to drop his dog.
That said, I saw exactly one bottle thrown. And was into a garbage truck as it drove by.
When I first saw the violence directed at civilians, I called 911 and filed an internal affairs investigation. The detective on the line asked me for badge numbers and I gave him as many as I could.
Let us know what you saw.
UPDATE: From YouTube: “Unfortunately my camera crapped itself and you can only see the edges but 4 cops are beating up some guy for apparently not clearing the road fast enough… you can HEAR whats happening even if you can’t see it.. and there were at least 11 other people filming so there will be other footage. the inexplicable way “Yes we can!” turns into “Yes we can be assholes”
More:
Update:
Brooklyn Vegan has pix
More:
And More:
Obama crowd in Williamsburg from johnnymillers on Vimeo.
I took the L-train home to BK around 2:30AM and the train was moving really slow, then there was an announcement that it would not stop at Bedford because of onongoing police investigation. As we slowly rolled through the station I saw a ton of cops walking around and several people standing there.
I was right on the southeast corner of N 7th and Bedford. I was there when it started with 1 person cheering for joy in the street to hundreds of people cheering for victory.
Then it turned for the worse a couple hours later.
A few minutes after the riot cops rolled in, I saw one cop break a beer bottle on the ground with his baton for no reason at all amidst all the positive energy and celebrating crowd. I assumed for intimidation purposes. People looked up at him and exclaimed “hey that isn’t safe” as one girl used her foot to try and push the shards to the side against the curb. Then after the first beat down occured, one innocent bystander was pushed back and I saw him fall on this glass with his hands. I could only see this one guy being held down by 3-4 cops, then a slew of other cops hitting other people nearby the Oasis falafel place. It was hard to keep track because I couldn’t believe what was going on.
There were no large amounts of bottles being thrown whatsoever, these were just sounds of broken bottles of a car cop rolling over trash bags on the street.
The second wave of brutality occured after someone flung an empty beer bottle over at the cops, which I admit was a stupid move but I think by this point people were extremely upset by what began as a joyous election celebration into a Bedford ave. nightmare. After the bottle was thrown, riot cops charged forward, walking swiftly then people got upset and more brutality occured.
What the hell happened???? There was absolutly NO NEED for any of this violence.
People were carrying on for longer than needed and being very drunk. When the cops started to break everything up they were met with some hostility. I saw a bunch of people getting in their faces and screaming at them. I saw a few of the people get taken down. There was forced need, but it was excessive. Way too excessive. Up until the first incident it was a joyous party that was peaceful. And it would have stayed that way. But after the first incident. It stopped being that. People were there to see something happen. They could have all left and went home because the great mood had been destroyed, but everyone stayed despite the fact that the focus went from Obama winning the election to cops being assholes.
And yes, I stayed. Mostly because I wanted to be there when something bad happened. I feel most people stayed for the same reason.
Folks-
I too was there and witnesses this disaster of public service. An utterly horrific way to cap what was the most joyous celebration I’ve ever witnessed.
If you need my testimony or ANY help and RISING UP, please feel free to email me:
jb – at – learnedevolution.com
Maybe you hipsters should go to sleep and get fucking jobs. I’m fucking sick of you crying about how the police shut down another one of your trust fund roaming street parties on bedford ave. And while you’re there, why don’t you move back to manhattan and get out of my fucking borough.
We arrived shortly after Obama’s victory speech, onto the corner of N.6 and Bedford. The streets were pulsating with sporadic shouts of “Oh – Bha – Ma” but at that point it was only your standard Bedford strip walkers. A car rolled by blasting beats, all of it’s passengers with their heads out of the windows screaming in jubilation. We screamed back and they stopped and parked blocking traffic on Bedford, turned up their music, and proceeded to dance. As we joined them people began to converge from every direction.
The first cops on the scene were quite nice. They chuckled as we chanted. They leaned on their cars and chatted amongst themselves. Upon their arrival the crowd seamed to instinctually retreat, backing away from N6 and instead accumulating around N7. As people arrived back to the hood and exited the subway the crowd continued to grow exponentially. As did the police presence.
The patty wagons arrived bringing with them officers with riot face gear and billy clubs in hand. They got into formation on Bedford and N6 in an apparent attempt to intimidate the revelers… to no avail. I approached the officer who seemed to be calling the shots and rather calmly asked, “Do you really think breaking up obvious joy is a good idea? Why not close off the area and reroute traffic and allow this thing to peter out on it’s own?” I suggested. I followed with a well pointed, “When you tell your grandkids about this day do you really want to be the guy in the story holding the billy club?” I guess with that I went too far and he barked for me to “exit the street immediately or you will be arrested!” So I, having to work early anyhow, went home as the ghetto birds circled above.
My partner in crime for the night stayed behind. She’s now at St. Vincent’s with a cracked skull. She can’t remember how it happened…
http://gawker.com/5069699/david-letterman-to-lauren-conrad-maybe-youre-the-problem
mess with the bull, get the horns …
you shoulda gone home when they told ya to …
if you think that was brutality, you’re soft …
if someone stuck a camera in my face, i’d do the same …
“‘Do you really think breaking up obvious joy is a good idea? Why not close off the area and reroute traffic and allow this thing to peter out on it’s own?’ I suggested. I followed with a well pointed, ‘When you tell your grandkids about this day do you really want to be the guy in the story holding the billy club?’”
It is this firm command of logic that elevates you, the spoon-fed prodigal loudmouth of the neighborhood, beyond the lowly public servant who must have had rocks for brains for telling you and your friends to behave and obey the law.
It might have been hard to hear in the middle of your hipster headquarters ruckus, but at no point in his acceptance speech did Barack Obama give you a mandate to act like even more of a douchebag than you usually do.
When you tell your children about that night, are you going to remember anything besides that you wore an especially ironic vest?
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