It was a punch seen around the world on the Internet, when on October 14 Occupy Wall Street protester Felix Rivera-Pitre was seen on video being punched in the face by New York City Police Department Deputy Inspector Johnny Cardona.
On Monday, the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. looked at the videos of the confrontation. Rivera-Pitre and his attorney, Ron Kuby, said they met with the DA’s office and the NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau for about two hours.
“Felix went through the video with them, frame by frame. Slow motion video, regular version video,” said Kuby.
NYPD officials said the protester tried to elbow Cardona, when the officer cocked back and punched the man.
“I absolutely didn’t. I didn’t,” said Rivera-Pitre.
Kuby said the video clearly shows the police supervisor was the aggressor as the protester tried to walk away.
“He wanted me to get on the sidewalk, he grabbed this arm and asked me to get on the sidewalk,” said Rivera-Pitre. “There is a lot of of people and I said there is no sidewalk to get on. And he punched me.”
Kuby said there is more video of the deputy inspector attacking other people, and claimed another video showed Cardona punching another protester. He said the DA’s office is looking into it.
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2 Responses
If there’s a way to make the police look bad, you can bet Ron Kuby will be the one to do it! I’m sure those protesters probably deserve a lot more than that one punch. They’re pretty much on the whole, totally obnoxious!
Leave it to anarchist Ron kuby to defend these creeps. A creep defending a creep. Pretty good. They both deserve the same fate!