Watch video posted by cab rider Sanjay Seth.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: The New York Police Department (NYPD) Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating a video posted to YouTube that recorded a plainclothes officer unleashing a torrent of xenophobic obscenities at a foreign Uber driver during a traffic stop in the West Village of New York City, the Daily News reported.
The policeman relentlessly taunted the straightforwardly polite driver’s broken English, cursing at him, and slamming the driver’s door shut violently before storming away.
“I don’t know what f—ing planet you’re on right now,” bellowed the unidentified officer to the driver, who was identified by poster Sanjay Seth only as ” Humayun.”
“Our Uber driver, Humayun, was abused by a police officer today in New York,” Seth wrote on his Facebook page. “The unending rage, door slamming, throwing items into the car, threatening arrest without cause was bad enough — but the officer’s remarks at the end really took it to another level.”
“It’s not your fault; this guy’s just a d–k,” one of passengers says on the video, later adding that the belligerent officer was on a “power trip.”
“He shouldn’t be slamming your car door. He shouldn’t be throwing things, and I don’t think he has the right to open your door,” Seth stated in the video.
The besieged driver offered numerous apologies, but the cop would not stop berating him. “You don’t let me f—ing finish! Stop interrupting me!” the cop bellowed.
Seth’s companion told Humayun that he didn’t believe the police officer had any grounds to arrest him, and at the end of the tirade, the policeman doled out a ticket and jabbed that the only reason the driver was not getting arrested was because he was “not important enough” and the so-called public servant had other things to do.
The catalyst for the incident emerged when cop tried to park his unmarked car without using his blinker, and the Uber driver went around him while gesturing to him to use his signal, Seth told the Daily News. He also mentioned in the video, titled “Police Abuse of Uber Driver in New York City,” that the driver honked at the unmarked car as he passed.
“We are disheartened by the officer’s behavior, and we appreciate the NYPD investigating the incident,” Uber spokesman Matt Wing related to the Daily News.
When The News contacted the 6th Precinct, under whose jurisdiction the incident occurred, an officer referred questions to the press office at NYPD headquarters, where a spokesman initially said the department was unaware of the video.
Only later did a police official later inform the New York City publication that a complaint had been given to the Internal Affairs Bureau for investigation.
1 Comment
This officer ? is a disgrace to any profession. He should be kicked out of his job. Period.