4.13.2009

possible police brutality in flushing

Last week, I got word of a possible police brutality incident that occurred on the evening of April 3 in Flushing, in an arrest allegedly involving over twenty officers assaulting one man. From what's been described to me, the incident happened after a middle-aged Chinese American driver ran a red light and crashed into a police car. The violence was apparently witnessed by the members of a church next to the accident site:
Then, according to my mother, 20 to 25 officers pulled the man out of the vehicle.
He was not resisting arrest and once again not under the influence of any drugs/alcohol.
After pulling him out of the vehicle they repeatedly assaulted the man by kicking him and punching him. She said the man cried out for help and expressed pain by screaming.
My mother and church members went over to obtain evidence by trying to take a picture or video, but one officer shouted "Get out of here." So instead they tried to stop the officers from beating the man but they were surrounding the man in a circle and my mother being a tiny woman couldn't do anything to help him. After nearly an hour of torment, they arrested the man and took him to the precint.
I've been looking around for more news about this, but unfortunately, it doesn't appear as though any mainstream news outlet has picked up on it. The only space offering any kind of news of information is on this Facebook group page: Police Brutality in Flushing. April 3, 2009.

Obviously, this is just one person's take on what happened, gathered from a variety of eyewitnesses and sources. I don't know what exactly happened, but it doesn't it required that kind of violent level of response. At the moment, I would just like more information. Is anyone else out there talking about this? Has anyone seen any media coverage?

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