NYPD Brutally Arrests Man 'For Sleeping on Way From Work' on Nearly Empty Train; Says He Was 'Occupying More Than One Seat'
An intense video of an unidentified black man being arrested for what he claims is sleeping on a the train, and according to the NYPD "occupying more than one seat," is now going viral on YouTube eliciting strong reaction from the public.
"This video says it all. ... The cops have way too much power. They are now the aggressors in our society, not the average citizen," wrote John Jenkins on the YouTube video posted Wednesday by 60th Street Watch.
The NYPD told Gothamist that the arrest took place on a nearly empty northbound F train on May 30 at about 4:18 a.m. because he was in violation of MTA's rules of conduct.
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According to the police, the unidentified man was "committing a Transit Rules and Regulations violation of laying outstretched occupying more than one seat." He was also charged with resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration in the second degree and violating a local law, according to Gothamist.
The video shows him trying to avoid being arrested, screaming that he is simply returning home from work while encouraging a woman recording the incident to keep recording.
"Record all of this please! I'm coming home from work, and they're f***ing with me because I'm sleeping, and bums get to sleep on the train," the man screams.
At one point a passenger is shown trying to help the officers arrest the man but the man tells him to back away because he is not a cop.
Additional officers eventually arrive in the video and the man is subdued.
The woman who recorded the arrest is then heard asking for badge numbers from the officers. One of them appears to swat at the recording device and she warns the officer: "Don't put your f**king hands on me!"
Despite being handcuffed and subdued on the floor of the train the man defiantly tells the woman "we gonna eat," suggesting that he plans on suing the NYPD.
MTA's rules of conduct permits sleeping or dozing on a train as long as it is not "hazardous to such person or to others or may interfere with the operation of the authority's transit system or the comfort of its passengers," according to Gothamist.
