NYPD distancing arrests: Many non-whites, at times violently
NEW YORK (AP) — One newly surfaced video of social distancing enforcement gone wrong in New York City shows a police officer running at a black man and throwing him to the ground for mouthing off. Another shows an officer punching a man in the head as he lies pinned to a sidewalk, unable to fight back.
Despite mounting pressure to stop using police to enforce social distancing and data showing that such arrests disproportionately affect people of color, Mayor Bill de Blasio stood by the practice on Thursday, saying: “We’re not going to sideline the NYPD.”
“I am not making my decisions based on a very few interactions that were handled poorly or went bad,” de Blasio said. “I’m making my decisions based on the millions of interactions that are going right.”