Thread by @DrRJKavanagh

This content needs a strong trigger warning for police violence.

This young man was stopped by a plainclothes police officer this evening in Canarsie, Brooklyn, apparently for being in a park shortly after the 9PM closing time.

Content warning: police violence (video part 2).

Regardless of the reason for the stop (because I am sure NYPD will come up with a reason like a report of a gun) there is no possible justification for this horrific use of violence.

This young man is clearly terrified, because he is being held at gunpoint by a cop (who doesn't even identify as a cop). Like anyone would be. But he is fully cooperative. He doesn't do anything that would have needed more than one cop to calmly arrest him.

I also want to add this is not extraordinary. So many young people I represent describe being arrested like this.

I often think that police brutality against Black and Brown people on NYC subways has really just made more visible this sort of police violence that has always existed in Black and Brown communities. White people are now more cognizant of it. But it is nothing new.

Please note: I didn't shoot this video. I have spoken with the young woman who did, @TheVelvetRope__, and she is happy for any media to use the video.

But you should definitely contact her, not me, with any media inquiries because she witnessed what happened and I didn't.