EMTs Complaint After Cops Punch Mentally Ill Patient For Spitting at Them

The
latest police brutality reporting from the New York Daily
News is about an incident that happened July 20, three days
after
Eric Garner died after being placed in a chokehold by cops from
the New York Police Department (NYPD), and comes not via video but
because of a complaint filed by emergency medical technicians from
the Fire Department of New York (FDNY), who say they had to
intervene when cops got too violent. The Daily News

reports:

The emotionally disturbed patient was punched multiple times in
the face by the cops on July 20, according to FDNY documents
obtained by The News. The cops only stopped when the EMTs bodily
intervened, the report said.

The violence broke out when the patient spit at the Emergency
Service Unit officers and swore at them. The officers responded by
hitting him in the face, hauling him off the stretcher to the
ground and then tossing him back on the stretcher, the EMTs said in
written statements submitted to the FDNY.

Bill De Blasio insists that “the
law’s the law,” although that seemingly strict worldview
doesn’t apply to immigration laws—New York remains a sanctuary city
under De Blasio. The police commissioner, Bill Bratton, suggests
people “correct their behavior” when approached by police but the
flurry of news about
police brutality by the NYPD in the wake of Garner’s death suggests
the department, and the city government, ought to think about how
to correct their behavior.