In the video, which was originally posted by a Facebook user who identifies as “El Grito De Sunset Park,” Amezquita is seen trying to get away from a police officer who is attempting to handcuff her, while a male voice tells her “Don’t resist. Don’t resist.” Her apparent attempt to escape the officer lasts only a few seconds, however, before the officer forces her face-down to the ground with her hands behind her back. At one point after Amezquita is on the ground, another woman approaches the officers, only to be shoved away by one of the cops hard enough that she rolls several times on the ground.
Amezquita eventually received a summons for disorderly conduct. The officer who took her down is reportedly being investigated by the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau.
The Amezquita arrest is the latest of a series of incidents involving allegations of excessive force by NYPD officers. Video taken in July shows an officer putting a asthmatic man named Eric Garner in a choke hold — in the video, Garner can be heard saying “I can’t breathe” before he collapses. He died shortly thereafter of a heart attack. Garner was accused of selling untaxed cigarettes on the street.
In a similar incident less than a month later, another video shows police dragging a woman dressed in a towel into an apartment building hallway. The woman, who also has asthma, yells “I can’t breathe” as police hold her against a wall. She eventually passed out wearing nothing more than her underwear.
Other incidents of alleged brutality have reportedly led to detached retinas or permanent facial scars. In one incident, a 14 year-old boy allegedly suffered cuts to his face and chest and a punctured lung after he was shoved through a storefront window.
Original Article
Source: thinkprogress.org/
Author: BY IAN MILLHISER
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