New York City – It can be a difficult scene to watch. A man is brutally beaten by cops and then accused of assaulting police.
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All the charges have been dropped against a now disabled truck driver whose severe beating on the lower east side was caught on tape!
But to this day, no one knows by whom.
Michael Cephus has just had a weight lifted off him. He was looking at more than a dozen years behind bars on a charge of assaulting a police officer, but the case was dismissed because of a videotape.
It was the 4th of July, in the park by the river on the Lower East Side. Cephus said he and NYPD officer Maurice Harrington exchanged words when Cephus tried to go back into the park. Cephus claims officer Harrington hit him with a collapsible baton for no reason. But once Cephus fell to the ground, what happened next was caught on videotape.
“They say one thing, you say another,” Cephus said of his confrontation with the cop. “Right away, it’s their word. You don’t have nothing. That’s it. But with the videotape, it shows I had done nothing, man.”
Cephus’ lawyer, Steve Orlow, said without the tape his client would be in a world of trouble.
“If not for this video, he’d be facing 15 years right now,” Orlow said.
The people who made the video were arrested, and police looked for the video, Orlow said. But they slipped it to a friend of the man who was beaten. Officer Harrington is now on what police call “modified duty,” that is, he’s been taken off the street and the officer is now looking at an investigation that could lead to charges.
Cephus and his lawyer do not know who made the video, but they would like to find out and say thanks.
And, yes, they will be suing the city.
Welcome to the NYPD. They are nothing but a bunch of low lifes. If there would be cameras everywhere there would be many more cops off the beat. The police thing they have unlimited rights and powers and treat everyone they encounter with great disrespect.
That aside, the officers clearly asked him to put his hands behind his back, which he refused to do. Its only then that the officer unleashed his furry.
All I can say is WOW!!!!!! Imagine without the video tape! And this can happen to anyone!!!!!!!!
its time that we put cameras on cops just like they have in the cars , they are a bunch of thugs that act like the mob when no one sees , enough is enough , no wonder the minority community hates them , look at the things they pull off in better communities , just imagine what they get away with in the bronx , planting drugs , beatings , knocking down doors for no reason etc
Wow the brutality! But where is that hate monger Sharpie Sharpton? Ahhh the cop is black so that’s ok.
WAIT! We still don’t know exactly what transpired before the video! Who says this guy didn’t go after the cops?
i didn’t watch the tape but i’m glad they got it all on video – these cops have too much aggression b’chlal
Before all the police brutality rantings and attacking of police due to fragmentary videos, cops used to beat up thugs off the books. Life was much safer in those days. People could walk the streets day and night.
Of course, there were some abuses but on the whole life was better for everyone. Now the criminals run the streets and their beatings video tapes don’t get any response.
Thank G-d the cops were black too, otherwise we’d all be in trouble.
Is that why they call it “walkng the BEAT?”
I haven’t seen the video, so i don’t know what you’re all horrified about.
But the video only starts once he was on the ground according to the article.
I would hazard a guess that he attacked the police first; i find it hard to digest that the police would beat him for being polite to them
This tape is horrific..it reminds me how i got beaten up by my Rebbe in cheder..No one listened to me then …I couldnt tell my father because he wouldnt believe me..
It reminds from nazis hitting both of my grandfather’s, and all the ysurim jewish people went through the war. These police look like nazis except they are both black, im crying! if there is no way one could prove his side, how could then be justice.This is going on in isreal too when the yassam come and hit someone for no reoson just becase he crosed the street in the wrong time. From now on im walking around with camra devices and a taprecorder.
I don’t get it. It is clear he is resisting arrest. What are the cops supposed to do with their batons? Tickle him? If anything, this is an argument for tasers.
Batons can inflict serious harm, yet its the nonlethal tool the NYPD carries to get a suspect to submit to arrest. If the cop beat him anywhere other than the legs, this guy could have suffered life threatening injuries.
i don’t know what video you were watching but the one i saw shows a man resisting arrest by flailing his arms. these cops were trying to place him under arrest and he did not give up his hands these officers did exactly what i and them were trained to do in the police academy which is to use as much force as is necessary to affect an arrest. as you can see in this video these officers were very conservative in their use of force only one officer is hitting this animal he deserved much more for resisting arrest and they only hit him in the legs as we were trained to do. when you go through training as a police officer and have to deal with animals everyday and put on that uniform to patrol unappreciative people like yourselves that prefer to defend an animal like that with a criminal record who only did that whole show because he wanted to sue the city then i will value your commentary. these officers did nothing wrong they did everything by the book.
The last time we were stopped by a cop while driving with a broken tail light we were really surprised. No, we were shocked. The cop was very nice. So unusual.
#34 is on target Cops do take advantage of their positions but this does not seem to be the case nor is there enough evidence to show otherwise.had we all been there we most probably would have agreed with the cops.Lets not defend the hoodlums based on this incomplete video of which I seem to see the cops were doing their duty.Mi shain lo deah asur lracheim alav
Go nypd go your the best!! So next time the cop has to let the criminal go being afraid of someone recording it??? Imagine NY without police I bet you would be afraid to walk on the streets so shut up!
“Cephus claims officer Harrington hit him with a collapsible baton for no reason” YEAH…. thats what we said when we where 3-y/o in school. Nothing is for nothing. PS.Thank g-d the offices was aloso of color
I went to court for summons and the officer created an obvious fib. I tried to say my part and the judge just laughed at me and smiled at the officer. I gave a detailed report as to what transpired. The officer even contradicted herself and then tried to correct it. Anyone have this experience with Judge Bomstien (I think thats his name)?
“A genuine Talmid Chochom is not a secular scholar lehavdil, who may be disagreed with.
A T”Ch’s views are shaped and honed by the truth of the Torah, and he will always be far, far ahead of you in understanding reality. The only one who can argue with him, is another Talmid Chochom of equal caliber”
Are you for real or a joke?
You clearly hear the cops yelling to put his hands beihnd his back and he refused and used a couple of profanities. Did the police maybe overdo it a bit? Yes and I would put these cops in jail because it is one thing to hit a guy to get him under control and it’s another to just keep on going at it.
There is clearly a problem when all you have to do is request a unit with a taser and the cops just kept on beating him with a stick and you do not even see the guy doing anything back to the officers.
Whre is Al Sharpton? Fat Al only get involved when it’s whitecops against black perps?!