The NYPD has landed in hot water yet again after a video surfaced of multiple officers brutally beating up a Bronx native.
In August, 23-year-old Santiago Hernandez was waiting for a friend when he was asked by two female officers to be searched. After complying with their demands, the officers found nothing.
A few moments later, Santiago is placed under arrest. After refusing to put his hands behind his back, multiple officers are seen kicking, punching, and pepper spraying him.
Santiago Hernandez, a 23-year-old out on parole after serving six years in prison for a gang assault when he was 14, says police frisked him while investigating a noise complaint on Aug. 18. Surveillance video from the scene aired on ABC-7 in New York shows him and another man cooperating with the search.
After the pat-down ends, Hernandez sits on the stoop. Then an officer handcuffs him and begins to bend his arm behind his back.
“I’m like, ‘Miss, what you doing? You’re hurting my arm,’” Hernandez told ABC-7. “She just was telling me to put my hands behind my back, I’m like, ‘I’m trying to understand what you’re arresting me for. Can you please tell me?’”
Santiago is prepared to file a civil complaint against the officers for their alleged unlawful practices. He also added that the officers beat him unmercifully as if they were in a gang.
“They was taking turns on me. One kicks me, he steps back. Another one comes, he punch me and he steps back. And another one comes and grabs my arm and hits me like 10 times with the baton. Another one comes, pepper-sprayed me. They were taking turns on me like a gang,” Hernandez told ABC.
Santiago says he’s been following the law and simply didn’t understand why he was targeted.
“Because I’m a person to ask questions. If I didn’t do nothing wrong, I’m trying to understand the reason, what they are thinking of me, or what was the reason at all to arrest me,” Hernandez told the reporter.
Santiago was charged for resisting arrest. The charges have since been dropped. The NYPD has also announced that their internal affairs department will investigate the incident.
SOURCE: Huffington Post | VIDEO CREDIT: 7Online
