An NYPD officer, unaware that he was being filmed, was captured unleashing a torrent of abuse and obscenities at an Uber driver as a passenger in the vehicle filmed the action. The lawman has been identified as an NYPD terrorism detective.
The officer in question was placed on modified duty as a result of his behavior, NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said Wednesday, according to NBC New York.
"In that kind of encounter, anger like that is unacceptable. In any kind of encounter, discourtesy like that and language like that is unacceptable," he said. "No good cop can watch that without a wince. All good cops know that the officer just made their jobs a little bit harder."
In the video, posted to YouTube on Monday, an infuriated officer is heard screaming at a taxi driver, who had honked at the undercover police vehicle as it was attempting to park.
"Stop it with your mouth, stop it with your 'for what, sir, for what, sir?' stop it with that bulls**t," the officer commands the driver.
“What f**king planet are you from,” the officer continues.
According to the Daily News, the officer has been identified as Detective Patrick Cherry, who works in the Joint Terrorism Task Force, police sources confirmed on Tuesday.
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Detective Cherry is then heard telling the driver to “sit in your f**king car,” while proceeding to slam the door shut. At this point, the passenger in the back of the taxi is heard telling the driver, “I have this on video.”
“You have,” asked the driver, clearly relieved. “Okay, thank you so much.”
One of the two passengers in the vehicle told the driver that he was not in the wrong.
"It's not your fault; this guy's just a d**k," he said, adding that the officer was on a "power trip."
When Detective Cherry returns, he says, “I don't know where you're coming from, where you think you're appropriate in doing that; that's not the way it works. How long have you been in this country?”
The detective wraps up the tirade by saying: “The only reason why you’re not in handcuffs and going to jail, and getting summonses in the precinct, is because I have things to do. That’s the only reason that’s not happening, because this isn’t important enough for me. You’re not important enough.”
The passenger who caught the footage has been identified as Sanjay Seth, who later posted the video footage to his Facebook page: “Our Uber driver, Humayun, was abused by a police officer today in New York. 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.”
The Uber driver filed a complaint with police, which prompted the NYPD to assign the case to the Internal Affairs Bureau.
According to Uber, the driver who was exposed to the rant did not want to comment. But company spokesman Matt Wing issued a statement: “The behavior in this video is wrong and unacceptable, and we appreciate the NYPD investigating the incident.”
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The NYPD on Tuesday determined the officer caught on the video was a member of the department and said the incident is being investigated by the Internal Affairs Bureau.
Speaking
As WCBS 880’s Alex Silverman reported, Mayor Bill de Blasio said there should be no tolerance for such behavior among police.
“There’s just no place for any public servant to use discriminatory or negative language,” the mayor said. “Again, I’m saying that not having seen the nuances, not having seen the exact language, but I’ll state the obvious principle.”
The Internal Affair Bureau of the NYPD has said it will investigate the video and “determine if a duty status change is required," the police source was quoted as saying.