A video shared on social media of New York City police officers pinning a homeless woman to the ground and handcuffing her has sparked outcry.
The footage, which appears to be the latest incident between civilians and NYPD officers to attract considerable social media attention, was posted by user Narvin Singh around 11:30 a.m. on November 22. It showed two officers pinning a woman near the turnstiles in Queens’ Jamaica Center subway station. The woman can be seen struggling to free herself, until the officers turn her over and handcuff her.
In the video, the person filming could be heard saying that they were recording the incident because it was “wrong.” A woman was also heard in the footage saying that the homeless woman, who the New York Post reported was living in the station, was being taken to the hospital for mental health treatment. Some mental health professionals, including the woman, appeared to be at the scene.
“Putting her on the ground is not helping her!” the person recording the video exclaimed. “They can have someone come and talk to her! They don’t need to [expletive] put her on the ground!…This is not something cops need to deal with! This is something maybe mental health professionals need to deal with!”
In response to this video, one homeless advocacy organization called it dehumanizing and traumatizing.
Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted about it, saying these videos are painful for anyone to watch, but “we have a moral obligation to help people get the care they need.”
HERE WE GO AGAIN: Man named @NarvinASingh filmed this saying
NYPD officers claimed they were "helping" this mentally disturbed woman and "getting her help". pic.twitter.com/BX5v7Hw1Jk— NYScanner (@nyscanner) November 25, 2019
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6 Responses
@ywn can you please provide the info of what motivated them to arrest her in the first place?
just because it went viral doesn’t mean it particularly interests anyone
I’m usually no fan of the police but I don’t see them as doing anything wrong here.
The woman was seeming to resist and they did call a social worker.
It doesn’t benefit anyone if they allow the subways stations to turn into homeless shelters for the mentally ill.
With all his self-righteousness the guy taking the video certainly wasn’t volunteering any of his resources to help the lady involved.
She was resisting arrest. That is enough reason to put her to the ground and handcuff her.
The NYPD needs to get its act together and start sending the specially trained officers whenever there is a mentally ill/drugged out person in need of supervision. Remember Gidone Busch? He was shot dead by untrained New York officers in his own driveway around the corner from my friends’ house in Boro Park. The officers didn’t wait for the specially trained unit to arrive, they just confronted Busch and shot him dead because he was brandishing a household hammer.
And need we go into the many instances of family/friends who called police to help with a mentally disturbed friend or relative, only to see the person shot dead? We need to have properly trained police who use proper procedures when dealing with the mentally ill. Remember that next time it could someone you know.
We don’t know why she is getting handcuffed. She also seemed to be resisting arrest. And the guy filming has to calm down a lot, he is blowing a masive fit!