In the wake of high-profile cases like that of Staten Islander Eric Garner, yet another instance of police brutality has been caught on camera. This particular incident took place in June, but the family of 17-year-old Marcel Hamel recently made the video public.
The clip shows a plainclothes New York City police officer in Brooklyn using excessive force on the teen, who he arrested for allegedly smoking marijuana.
In the video, we can see Hamer being pinned down against a gutter, as he pleads with the cop, saying, “Mister, it was just a cigarette, sir.” While Hamer is still laying on the ground, the cop proceeds to strike him and he seems to temporarily lose consciousness.
His friends can be heard in the background hysterically screaming, “You knocked him out!” but the cop simply responds to Hamer and his friends asking, “Do you wanna get f–ked up?” and taunting them by adding, “Yeah, get it on film.”
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Hamer was charged with disorderly conduct after the arrest and, according to his family, he has been suffering from dizziness, headaches and memory loss. “He is always complaining of headaches and he cannot remember things,” his mother Mary Hamer told The Brooklyn Paper. “He used to be pretty sharp, and now I am helping him.”
The NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau is currently investigating the incident and the Hamer family’s lawyer William Thompson said that this is clearly an ongoing problem within the police department. “It is pervasive now, throughout the department,” Thompson said. “It is indicative of an attitude in the police department that is, ‘Them against us. Let’s do whatever we want.’ ”
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