The city of Paterson, New Jersey, announced Wednesday that the officer caught on camera physically assaulting an unarmed Black man in late May will be terminated.
“It was deplorable what I witnessed,” Mayor Andre Sayegh said about the footage of the encounter during a news conference. ”And intolerable, that’s why we reached this point.” Sayegh said his administration served the officer with papers seeking his termination, PIX11 reported.
The two-minute video released by the mayor’s office shows officer Spencer Finch punching the unidentified Black man before kneeing him forcefully in the face after he was placed in handcuffs. It’s not clear how city officials became aware of the video.
The 44-year-old Mahwah, New Jersey, resident, who has been a member of the Paterson Police Department since 2003, was arrested on June 11 and charged with official misconduct, assault and trying to cover up his alleged wrongdoing by filing a false police report following an investigation by the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office after initially being placed on unpaid suspension. He was released on June 16 after appearing before a judge and is awaiting trial.
In the May 26 incident captured on police body camera, officers were at a residential building handling a domestic dispute. The footage shows the Black man walking down a hallway and interacting with another officer who was attempting to calm him down. The man was talking on a cellphone and appeared to be upset about being separated from his children.
“This is the third time my kids have been taken away from me,” the man said as Finch walked into the frame and struck him in the head before punching him several more times and wrestling him to the ground. Once the man was on the ground in handcuffs, Finch kneed him in the head.
News of Finch’s termination came after 40 community organizations, including Black Lives Matter Paterson, called for him to be kicked off the force. Finch has five days to appeal the actions taken by the city to the New Jersey Civil Service Commission. He is the first Patterson officer to be served termination papers based on evidence from police body cameras.
“Two and a half years ago, I announced my tools for trust and the primary tool was body cameras. After fighting for officers to be equipped with body cameras, today I am taking decisive action based on deplorable footage captured by a body camera. Officer Finch has been served papers seeking his termination. That type of behavior is not tolerated in our department,” said Sayegh.
But according to Zellie Thomas with the Black Lives Matter Paterson chapter, filing Finch’s termination paperwork alone isn’t enough.
“Filing termination paperwork for an officer who violated someone’s right shouldn’t be seen as a big step,” Thomas told Atlanta Black Star. “We need to file termination paperwork for all cops still on the force with excessive force complaints against them. Officers are allowed to remain employed even after they’ve harmed residents. That has to end now.”
Finch has been accused of excessive force in at least four other incidents in several lawsuits. In one case, Finch and other officers were caught on camera kicking handcuffed shooting suspects lying on the pavement. The city approved a $610,000 settlement in that lawsuit.
Finch’s defense said his actions against the distraught father in the hallway were warranted.
“We maintain that the actions of Officer Finch were appropriate under the circumstances,” said his lawyer, Anthony J. Iacullo, when asked by reporters about the release of the video. “We are confident that when this matter is fully accessed in a court of law, it will be shown to be appropriate under the circumstances that existed at that time.”
