More Police Brutality at Occupy Wall Street Protest (Video)

Madison Ruppert, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

Previously, the NYPD has wildly assaulted crowds, attacked activists with pepper spray, and used questionable tactics to conduct mass arrests, but now they have bested their own record of brutality against the Occupy Wall Street protesters.

No less than two new incidents occurred:

A video has emerged of an individual being assaulted by an NYPD white shirt (which designates the officer as either a lieutenant, captain or inspector) for apparently no reason.

While some people have been saying that this was a female, it was in fact a male former dancer named Felix Rivera-Pitre.

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Astoundingly, Rivera-Pitre managed to escape arrest after activists overwhelmed the police in response to the unprovoked attack.

Rivera-Pitre says that his only offense was that he “shot the cop a look” yet the NYPD supervisor found this reason enough to hit him so hard that it ripped his earring out.

“The cop just lunged at me full throttle and hit me on the left side of my face. It tore my earring out. I remember seeing my earring on the ground next to me and it was full of blood. I was completely dumbstruck. I’m HIV positive and that cop should get tested”, Rivera-Pitre told Gothamist.

The following is a video of the incidents that directly preceded the assault on Rivera-Pitre.

Occupy Wall Street’s “Victory” March Video from ANIMALnewyork.com on Vimeo.

In a second incident, a legal observer for the National Lawyers Guild, Ari Douglas, was run over by a police scooter, after which he was arrested and hospitalized.

Another legal observer for the National Lawyers Guild who witnessed the incident told the NY Daily News, “”His leg was stuck under the bike, and he kicked his leg to get the bike off his leg, and then the police attacked him and shoved him into the ground and put a night stick against the back of his neck.”

Unsurprisingly, the NYPD is saying that Douglas simply made everything up and the only injuries he received were scratches to his face because he was resisting arrest.

The spokesman for the NYPD, Paul Browne, had this to say about the incident, “Douglas had repeatedly disregarded lawful orders to get out of the street and onto the sidewalk, and then feigned being run over before kicking over the police scooter”.

Douglas has had a laundry list of charges brought against him, including resisting arrest, criminal mischief, disorderly conduct and other charges, according to Browne.

A photographer for the NY Daily News apparently agrees with the NYPD’s account, saying that while Douglas was hit by the scooter, he just stuck his legs under it to make it seem like he was being run over.

Yet, another photographer who witnessed the incident indeed says that Douglas was run over. This is the image captured by Marino of the incident:

Watch the two videos below and decide for yourself.

OWS_PoliceScooter from The Local East Village on Vimeo.

Gideon Oliver, an attorney and member of the National Lawyers Guild had this to say to Gothamist about the incident with Douglas, “It’s absolutely outrageous he was assaulted in the first place, it is outrageous that he was arrested, and outrageous he was assaulted after he was arrested—he has injuries to his face. It’s an example of the police putting charges against someone just to cover their ass. We ask that the NYPD releases him without charges immediately after he’s treated.”

We will keep you updated as more details on this story emerge.