Criminal Defense & Civil Rights Attorney, Writer, Legal & Media Analyst. @theappeal @nyulaw @sydneylawschool @sydney_uni. Sydney 
NYC. she/her. Views my own.
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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.pic.twitter.com/RxYHWKfIho
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.pic.twitter.com/71mhzvPAPP
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.
I couldn’t watch. I RT. But I couldn’t bear to watch not knowing what was going to happen in advance. It breaks my heart every time.
CJ, I know. I didn't know whether to post.
Your post reminded me of this one I saw recently, also in Brooklyn. Not saying it’s the same plain clothes police, don’t want to assume, but this was 2 days ago. https://twitter.com/lilomorton_/status/1234697372040671232?s=21 …https://twitter.com/lilomorton_/status/1234697372040671232 …
Unfortunately, young black men do not know how to remain calm in these situations. Young black men have to learn how to control their emotions even though the natural human reaction is to question authority while feeling unfairly treated.
Were we looking at the same video? This young man was standing as calm as he was able to do so at the beginning of this video. His heart was racing! He was scared, terrified at the possibilities of what could happen.
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Velvet
