In the latest embarrassment for U.S. police officers caught on tape with the help of ever-present recording devices, an NYPD officer engaged in a confrontation with a man is shown reaching into the man’s pocket and removing what appears to be a stack of cash. When the man asks the officer to give him back the money, the cop responds by firing pepper spray at his face.
On onlooker captures the incident - which occurred about 12:20 a.m. in Brooklyn’s Coney Island – and is also heard on the videotape saying, “He just stole his money.”
The man, Lamard Joye, says the NYPD officer took $1,300 of his money, which he was carrying because he was out celebrating his 35th birthday with friends. Joye, who was not arrested, said he never got the money back and also has not been able to obtain any explanation about the incident.
“I believe that this officer made an assumption that any money Mr. Joye possessed was obtained illegally and therefore he would not report the theft,” said Joye’s lawyer, Robert Marinelli. “This assumption was wrong. An incident like this would never occur in a more affluent section of the city.”
A spokesman for the law enforcement organization the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, had another view of the matter. “A 35-second-long video does not provide enough information about a police encounter to come to any conclusion about what transpired,” Patrick Lynch said.
“The rush to judgment will leave this city with an impotent police department where police officers will be afraid to act and neighborhoods will be left to the mercy of the criminals,” he added. “Resisting and interfering with an arrest is against the law. It is time to stop the amateur video activists who interfere with police operations from setting the agenda.”
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