Video has emerged of a New York City officer wrestling a skateboarder in the ground before allegedly using “a banned chokehold”.
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The video, released by 22-year-old Yibin Mu on YouTube Monday, shows a cop aggressivley locking his arms around head and taking him to the ground. He said Mu was arrested for refusing to show the officer his ID, and that officers have received “numerous complaints” in the past about the man skateboarding.
Video was posted this week showing the rough arrest of a skateboarder in Columbus Circle.
“What did I do wrong?”
“Yo! Yo!” one person was heard screaming.
Mu also accuses the cop of grabbing him “without warning” and putting him in a chokehold.
Mu said he held the board behind his back using one hand and held his other arm up to ward off the officer, who grabbed his arm with one hand and used his other to put him in a headlock. ‘He then put me in a chokehold and this is what happened next.
“I was just skating around, killing a few time”, Mu told the site.
Yibin Mu, 22, said he spent the night in jail after the run-in on Sunday at about 5 p.m. that was caught on tape.
Last year, national outrage and debate sparked when Eric Garner died as an NYPD officer placed a chokehold on him in Staten Island.
On Facebook, Mu said that he thought he was going to be questioned by the officer about skateboarding in the area.
The officer then sat on top of Mu and proceeded to pepper spray him in the face. I saw this police officer approaching. ‘I withdrew and then he used force on me’.
Police spokesman Detective Brian Sessa told Gothamist that the officer stopped Mu to ticket him for skateboarding in Columbus Circle, which is prohibited.
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But Mu “refused to sit down and ignored him”. Enlarge Yibin Mu/via YouTube Mu, the 22-year-old skateboarder being taken down in the video, claims the officer had him in an illegal chokehold during the takedown. There are, according to the police, six signs alerting potential skaters that it is illegal to skateboard there. The student was “charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, failure to comply with a posted sign, and defacing park property”, with the New York Daily News reporting that court records indicate his release “on his own recognizance at his arraignment Monday”.
