Once again, it appears as if yet another New York City police officer lost control of his emotions, resorting to violence to make an arrest.
This time, the suspect was a 22-year-old skateboarder named Yibin Mu, who was placed in a headlock and body slammed – then pepper sprayed – for skateboarding inside Columbus Circle, a traffic circle near Central Park in Manhattan.
NYPD said they had to arrest Mu Sunday because it is illegal to skateboard inside the circle, according to Gothamist. They even have signs posted.
However, NYPD claims, when officer Gill asked Mu to sit-down so he could write him a summons, the skateboarder ignored him, which is when the cop decided to arrest him.
And that was when the scrawny skateboarder started fighting with the armed officer, according to a NYPD spokesman.
Detective Sessa said that according to the officer’s arrest report, Mu “refused to sit down and ignored him. The officer informed him that he was placing him under arrest, and attempted to take him into custody, and the defendant fought with the officer.”
However, Mu has a completely different account of what took place, according to his YouTube description.
This occurred at 59th Columbus Circle on 10.25.15 around 4:55pm.
Without warning, the police officer used one hand to grab my forearm and the other hand to grab the back of my neck. He then put me in a chokehold and this is what happened next. I was non-aggressive the entire time. My name is Yibin Mu and I’m tired of abusive cops.
The officer is named Gill, badge number 19646 who works at the Midtown North Precinct. 18th Precinct. Whether his badge number is real or not I do not know.
Gill already has Mu in a headlock, spinning him around, when the video begins, so we are unable to see what took place beforehand.
But once the cop has Yu facedown while straddling his body, he reaches around and pepper sprays the man’s face, even though Yu is already under control and is not resisting.
“What are you doing?” asks Yu. “Did I do something wrong? What did I do wrong?”
Meanwhile, a witness can be heard saying, “here we go again.”
Yu was charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, failure to comply with a posted sign and defacing park property.
PINAC correspondent Chille DeCastro contributed to this report.
Columbus Circle (photo via Wikipedia)
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