The New York Police Department rolled out new training videos and one of its officers went viral after he filmed his own clip to mock them.
Comedian DL Hughley shared the video on his Instagram page on Wednesday. In the video, the NYPD officer mimicked a video supposedly explaining the proper way to detain a suspect. Another officer, who remained off-screen, was heard laughing and egging him on.
“I’ve been studying these tactical videos they got us watching and I’m ready,” the video began. He proceeded to pretend to politely ask permission to arrest someone who’d shot two people.
“Hello, sir, you are under arrest,” he said to a hypothetical suspect. “You know what, maybe we’re just detaining you. We’re not sure.”
As the spiel continued, the officer suggested ways he could make the potential detainee more comfortable, including mats. The officer told the pretend perp he and his partner were going to “approach you and tap you on the shoulder. And, hopefully, slide your arm to the back.”
“What? That’s a little uncomfortable? We’re gonna use several cuffs to make sure your arms stay in the position you want them to be.”
He eventually called for imaginary backup and suggested they bring mats to place on the ground for the high-maintenance criminal.
“The ground is too hard? We got the mats coming for you,” the officer said.
As his partner continued to snicker, the officer took a jab at the prospect of being under increased supervision.
“You may not be under arrest. I’m not sure. I have a supervisor coming who is gonna supervise me and he’ll be supervised by a supervisor who supervises the supervisor. And we’re all gonna sit here and watch you tell us what to do.”
At the end, he asked the unofficial arrestee his name, and the answer was “suck your d**k.”
“There’s a lot of people out here with that name,” the officer said before he turned off the camera.
The video was viewed more than 360,000 times on Hughley’s page. Many of his followers were not laughing with the officers.
“It’s all fun and games until you get stopped by your coworkers and end up with a knee to your neck!” wrote one commenter.
“We didn’t say all corrupt cops are white. We just said defund them all. We know all skin folk ain’t kinfolk. Learned that over 400 years ago as well. Smh,” wrote another.
“A Cornball will be a Cornball no matter what the job or uniform!” declared another follower.
The NYPD released a new tactical training video on July 3, reported New York Daily News. One video showed an officer demonstrating several illegal moves that should be avoided when detaining a suspect. New York City already banned chokeholds, but the City Council is considering adding a policy barring officers from using moves that would restrict or apply pressure to a person’s diaphragm. The changes have not been well received in the law enforcement community.
“It is tough right now to be a police officer,” NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan told PIX11 last week. “You have to worry if someone may have taken a shot at you, that you are now arresting and if your knee hits their back, you become the criminal.”
“We’re actually giving them a script on how they should behave in a critical incident, and that’s just not reasonable,” Dr. Robert Gonzalez, a retired NYPD Assistant Commissioner of Training, told PIX11. “The City Council are not police experts, they’re not experts in police tactics.”
“A ‘what not to do’ video accomplishes nothing. Just tell us what we should do to arrest a resisting suspect without violating the new law,” Police Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch told New York Daily News. “We’re not getting that guidance from the City Council, the Mayor or the NYPD.”
