Neighborhood Watch is urging people to attend a community meeting about the violent conduct of the police in Williamsburg on Tuesday night and to file complaints with the Civilian Review Board. We hope the officer in this despicable video behaving in a disgusting fashion is brought up on charges and, frankly, losses his job for what is nothing less than (mild) brutality.
GL Analysis
This is piggish, obscene and revolting conduct of the kind that causes problems and makes a mockery of the Constitution. Is this okay with you, Council Member Yassky? Congrats to the people who caught this behavior on camera. We can wait to see what the city does about it. (Probably nothing.)
25 responses so far ↓
1 JR // Nov 7, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Use some common sense people. They ask you to move out of the street (a reasonable request) , you better move or you are inviting trouble. What do people think is going to happen to them if they are giving cops a hard time? You think they will put up with people taunting them? They are COPS!
2 Brenda from Flatbush // Nov 7, 2008 at 1:37 pm
“Mild” is indeed the word for the brutality, but so is “stupid” and “ineffective.” The cops are basically trying to clear the intersection of a crowd of happy, dweeby white hipsters, from what I can see. Psychology 101 says that some basic cheerful good humor, or even the avuncular decency of an old-time Bobby in an English movie (“Right we are, folks, let’s move along” in American translation) would have been a hell of a lot more effective than this confrontational asshole. I’ve seen situations that needed to be defused with a show of brute force (that’s why they use horses for crowd control), but this SO wasn’t one of them.
3 Bob // Nov 7, 2008 at 2:21 pm
These guys were totally provoking these cops. They should have just moved out of the way like the cop asked. The cop did the right thing. Idiot hipsters were looking for trouble and they found it. You think just because you’re holding a camera that makes you ENTITLED to whatever you like?
4 Steve // Nov 7, 2008 at 2:47 pm
I was there. I was psyched that Obama won. When the cops showed up, they asked people to disperse because we were blocking the street… I dispersed. About 1,000 people did not. The cop shouldn’t have been so agressive but at the same time people need to obey the law to some degree.
5 Josh // Nov 7, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Ah, come on. These kids were acting like insolent, entitled pricks, directly disobeying the (entirely reasonable) directions of a police officer.. There are plenty of instances of police violence to get upset about. This isn’t one of them.
6 Bob // Nov 7, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Next time you propose something “discusting/ obscence” show us a clip from Who’s Nailin Paylin or something. There’s nothing really discusting or obscene here except these asshole hipsters tried to be all tough then probably ran home and cried to their mommies.
7 spnder // Nov 7, 2008 at 4:19 pm
Are we watching the same video? The kids are on the sidewalk and they are slowly walking away just as the police is telling them to do.
Nobody likes a camera phone in their face, but give me a break, it’s just that one officer who is being too aggressive. All the rest seem to be peacefully dispersing the crowd.
I guess the question is whether it’s acceptable to have a few bad apples in a police force as big as this city’s? I don’t think it’s ever acceptable, but I don’t know what can be done about it…
8 D // Nov 7, 2008 at 4:46 pm
If I’m not mistaken the police officers are professionals and are trained to deal with the public. There was absolutely no threat posed by the rude “hipsters.” Smacking and swatting rude people is not in the police training manual. Officer 1897 is a senior officer with stripes on his sleeves HE KNOWS BETTER. HE IS A TRAINED PROFESSIONAL. And worse yet, other officers look to him for guidance on how to respond to the public. Do you like the idea that we are paying that officer nearly $100k/year to act this way?! Seems like officer 1897 might have been having a bad day after his maverick lost.
9 James // Nov 7, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Did I hear the hipster tell the cop who was moving him refuse to move untill the cop said “please”? We need to re-institute the draft for these entitled assholes.
10 spnder // Nov 7, 2008 at 5:56 pm
And by the way, all the generalizing about entitled hipsters with trust funds pretty much discredits anything useful one might have to add to the discussion.
(Same goes for opining on the cop’s motivations too. )
11 wisco // Nov 8, 2008 at 12:01 am
as a local resident, what happened to my rights to not hear those a**holes screaming all night? they broke the law, and didn’t disperse when told to do so by the cops. zero sympathy for them. they are jerks, and i support the cops 100%.
12 Easy Tiger // Nov 8, 2008 at 12:43 am
I am a hipster.
And I hate cops.
But I stand by this guy, he was in the right.
13 b // Nov 8, 2008 at 2:13 am
Are you kidding me? These hipsters flood the streets, block pedestrain and vehicular traffic, keep others awake, etc. The cops ask them to clear the street numerous times and all the hipsters do is curse, talk back, some even push in th ebackground of other videos, stick cameras in a cops face. These troublemaking entitled hipsters asked for what they got.
Keep in mind, many facelesss people DO actually call the cops to deal with such problems. the cops don’t just come lookin gfor trouble. Hipsters are so selfish however and don’t care that others must sleep or that cops tell them to not block traffic.
NYPD is in the right here.
14 b // Nov 8, 2008 at 2:24 am
Why is it that probably over 8 million of “us” have never got into a confrontation with a police officer like this in our lives and you fly in from Wisconsin with a beard and a fedora hat and within a couple of years or even months you do.
hipsters are selfish idiots
15 DW // Nov 8, 2008 at 11:09 am
Billburg is just a stinkin’ hiptard theme park.
Full of trustafarians like the owner of this blog.
Most of them will grow up and move along to the next douch-y trendy neighborhood.
16 Jack // Nov 8, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Gowanus Lounge, first I think behavior of folks on both sides of this were less than admirable. But somehow since GL came back from a short hiatus, a lot of these morally outraged posts have just come off as screeds and rants and not much else.
17 Jack // Nov 8, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Gowanus Lounge, first I think behavior of folks on both sides of this were less than admirable. But somehow since GL came back from a short hiatus, a lot of these morally outraged posts have just come off as screeds and rants and not much else.
I will also say this: I wasn’t in Williamsburg, but on Smith Street in Boerum Hill there were TONS of cheering folks and no cops are need for cops. The cheers coming from the Gowanus Houses were awesome. Again, no cops. No hassle. And in reports from everyone I know, there was cheering and celebration but no hassles from anyone… Except in hipster-infested Williamsburg.
You know how with Obama in office some folks will have to face their own inner racism? Well, I think some of us will also have to question our inner apologist for spoiled and bratty hipster trash. Those kids in Williamsburg can be proud to be the ONLY group of idots really hassled by the cops. And from my vantage point, for good reason.
18 BakiShamil // Nov 8, 2008 at 7:18 pm
pathetic white hipsters don’t understand that they need to move along in order to keep intersection clear. idiots
19 frencheese // Nov 8, 2008 at 9:59 pm
“bienvenu les bobos”. “welcome to the hipsters”.
I found the best translation for the French word “bobo” : Hipster, or some kind of wealthy guys working in fortune 500 companies who pretend to be poor but without giving a dime to help the real ones.
The cop was nice, he didn’t crush the fancy cellphone.
Hey hipster! why don’t you go to Paris suburbs whith your iPhone?
20 Zdeno // Nov 8, 2008 at 11:41 pm
These hipster doofuses need to learn to obey orders and get a fucking life. People like this are destroying our neighborhoods.
21 Michael // Nov 9, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Ok you know what you Left of Right center dimwits, the police would not have to hit you if you would just do as they say immediately. Here’s and idea, instead of acting the jackass and asking, “ok where do you want me to go?” HOW ABOUT HOME. Fine Obama won. Don’t act lik a bunch of A holes because of it. Your worse than overzelous Football/baseball fans (Yankees I’m looking at you)
22 NT // Nov 10, 2008 at 5:22 pm
NYPD Police are 100% right in this situation. Get out of the street. Shut your mouth. Turn around and walk away and you wont have an issue.
23 Cesar // Nov 11, 2008 at 12:41 am
They deserved it. That cop reacted normally as far as I’m concerned. Sticking a camera phone in a person’s face deserves for it to get slapped away. They’re lucky they didn’t get their asses kicked. Seriously, shut the fuck up you non-New York hipsters from the middle of nowhere trying to be all political and more New York than everyone else. Go home.
24 John // Nov 22, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Go read the First Amendment and tell me what the crowd was doing that was not peaceable. This cop should be fired for all of our protection and before that temper puts a round into a 17 year old.
An official can not order you to dance in the middle of the street. The guy’s question of where to go was within his rights. There is nothing that looks life threating, there is no PC this cop is abusing his power.
25 Sean // Nov 23, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Obama won. People were loud. Cops were called. People told to disperse. People didn’t disperse. People were assholes. Cop demanded cooperation (as is his duty and right). Assholes didn’t cooperate. The end.
Stop with the bleeding heart “The cop assaulted me” bullshit. Not following a direct order from an officer of the law is AGAINST the law. He had every right to remove the cell phone from his face, as he had asked several times, and was denied. Shut the hell up and follow the rules like everyone else.