Online video Shows NYPD Officer Kneeling On Man’s Neck Throughout Arrest In Queens

An NYPD officer was seen on movie showing up to kneel on a Black man’s neck in the course of an arrest in Queens very last week, provoking comparisons to the police killing of George Floyd that ignited waves of protests nationwide this spring.

SirCarlyle Arnold, a 34-calendar year-aged Extended Island resident, was arrested in Jamaica, Queens on Friday. He was charged with misdemeanor reckless endangerment for allegedly working an unlawful ATV.

Video of the face shared by Arnold’s attorney displays a person of the officers appearing to location his knee from the man’s neck for a number of seconds. Numerous bystanders can be heard begging the officer to remove his knee. At least two of the officers included in the arrest are not sporting confront masks, in violation of the department’s COVID-19 protocols.

https://www.youtube.com/view?v=R3LH3E9hGSM

In a phone job interview, Arnold informed Gothamist he was participating in a group trip-out for a recently deceased good friend, and had no intention of defying the officers’ orders. He stated he was dismounting his quad bicycle when he was thrown to the floor unexpectedly by a number of officers.

“I was not resisting at all. I’m laying on the floor, there is certainly no will need to have your knee on my neck for more than a moment,” Arnold mentioned. “You guys handled me like this for no cause soon after all this things that just went on?”

He additional he suffered knee and neck accidents in the confrontation, which he only discovered later, immediately after the adrenaline wore off.

The arrest could pose one particular of the to start with major checks of a contentious chokehold ban handed by the City Council in the aftermath of Floyd’s dying. The law makes it a misdemeanor for cops to use several techniques of restraint, including kneeling on a person’s back again or neck, or proscribing the move of air by blocking their windpipe, in the program of an arrest.

In July, soon after the legislation was handed, the NYPD circulated a coaching video clip to all officers urging them not to subdue suspects by sitting on them or placing any stress or their neck or back — and to stage in and prevent colleagues who are making use of the illegal strategies.

A thirty day period later on, the legislation was amended, following sustained backlash from law enforcement unions and NYPD brass, who claimed the law would disincentivize cops from enforcing crime. “Any cop who’s at any time fought with an individual on the road, attempting to get him into cuffs, there is a terrific likelihood that your knee is likely to finish up on that individual’s back, and now this new regulation is criminalizing it,” Chief of Division Terence Monahan said at the time.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Legal Assist Society known as on Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz to prosecute the unidentified officer underneath the new regulation, and to drop all prices in opposition to Arnold.

In addition to the reckless endangerment cost, Arnold faces four auto and site visitors violations, as effectively as a demand for unlawful marijuana possession.

Neither the Queens DA nor the NYPD responded to Gothamist’s ask for for remark.

Olayemi Olurin, an legal professional with the Lawful Assist Culture representing Arnold, stated she had minor religion that the officer would facial area willpower if the district lawyer declined to prosecute. So much, no NYPD officers have been charged under the new chokehold law.

“It really is been permitted for officers to behave illegally versus weak Black and brown persons since the dawn of time,” Olurin informed Gothamist. “On the heels of legislation and what took place George Floyd, not punishing these officers is continuing to legitimize their conduct and their misconduct.”