Social Distancing Doesn't Matter When It Comes To Racist Aggressive Policing

Information Man Speaks PODCAST

The NYPD officer who violently arrested a man in the East Village during a social distancing stop this weekend has a lengthy history of alleged brutality garnering more than half a dozen misconduct lawsuits in five years, and costing city taxpayers nearly $200,000, according to the Legal Aid Society. In a video recorded on Saturday, a plainclothes officer can be seen punching and tackling Donni Wright, a groundskeeper with NYCHA, while shouting the n-word, brandishing a taser, and subsequently kneeling on Wright's head. The confrontation began after officers, some of whom were not wearing face coverings, spotted "a number of people not wearing masks" at the corner of Avenue D and 9th Street, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said on Monday. The officer's shield number, recorded by observers, matches that of Francisco Garcia, a housing patrol officer who's been named in at least seven civil lawsuits since 2015.