A viral video that emerged Tuesday night shows several New York Police Department officers wearing T-shirts and shorts grabbing a protester and dragging her toward an unmarked vehicle, according to video footage filmed and posted to social media by bystanders.
So armed people in plainclothes drag a person into an unmarked van.
Human sex traffickers will be thrilled.
“criminal mischief” - Is that a felony charge or a misdemeanor?
Talk about luck! They just happen to find her on the street instead of needing to go to her home.
Just go back in time 4 years. This would have been utterly inconceivable.
They say people threw rocks at them? They were kidnapping her. That’s the kind of thing you do when you see randos in shorts dragging a woman into the van. That and calling the police–“Oh wait, what? Dispatcher, you say they’re already here?”
I actually understand that using unmarked vehicles has its appropriate place in police work.
However it should not be an everyday, regular tool of police work. It’s a specialized tool in the tool box.
Serving arrest warrants seems a reasonable time to utilize this tool.
However, the level of the crime underlying the warrant should be of a certain level before using a specialized tool.
Additionally, rolling up on a group of people? Especially with all the bugaloos out there?
In such cases full uniform and police vehicles is the only option.
Warrior Cops gonna war.
NYPD is a disgrace.
As has been pointed out elsewhere, ICE has been using these tactics for a while now. That was the dress rehearsal. This is the rollout.
Of course these same chicken-shit cops would never pull this crap on the armed militia guys who fearlessly crash the party at many government buildings in other states. I’m raging here.
This is a clear provocation, there was absolutely no need to do this, Das Schwine did it to challenge Civil Authorities.
Fire them all. Just fucking fire them all. You get rehired if you can prove you have a modicum of regard for a citizen’s constitutional rights. This bullshit needs to stop right here.
And routinely psych test them every 18-24 months.
And, when terminated, they go on a national database so they can’t find work in some small town where they can act like Bull Connor or Heinrich Müller.
I don’t think this is the kind of image and video that the trump campaign and barr were hoping for.
Too much testosterone and Fox News, with a soupçon of Federal troops in Portland. Showing that local cops can be goons too.
What the hell are they doing seizing someone off the streets on a charge of criminal mischief? Nothing suggests any violence in the crimes alleged, except against property.
The police must really really want reforms. Like kids throwing a tantrum when tired.
They do psych test them. For fascism. They all pass with flying colors.
I just sent this letter to our Mayor. If you live in NYC please do the same:
Dear Mayor Deblasio,
I am writing on behalf of 18-year-old Nikki Stone, a protester who was unlawfully kidnapped at the Abolition Park protest at 2nd Ave and 25th Street.
You should know that this footage is going viral on social media. Please watch it and address it. I am gravely concerned about the police acting in such a lawless manner. Your silence makes you complicit.
As the election draws closer Trump will try to instigate more violence in our cities. The mayors of Portland, Seattle, and Chicago have all warned Trump and his followers that such lawless actions will not be tolerated.
Please get out ahead of this conflict before it escalates. And it will escalate, for this IS the Trump reelection strategy.
I hope and expect you to address this important and obvious problem within the news cycle.
A dedicated voter,
Michael Coughlan
Greenpoint Brooklyn
No it wasn’t, there were plenty of people four years ago warning of the fascist tinge of Trump’s rhetoric and where it could lead if he was elected.
