NY Cop Purposefully Bumps Into Protester, Triggers Violent Arrest
Long Island, NY Cop Bumps Protester on Purpose ... Triggers Violent Arrest
UPDATE
3:45 PM PT -- The man who was tackled and arrested in this video, Terrel Tuosto, tells TMZ he absolutely feels he was set up by these officers -- and says they need to be removed from the force.
UPDATE
Leading up to this, Terrel says his own brother actually ran into a similar situation -- cutting across officers -- and he too was arrested after officers took it as an act of aggression. He feels the officers know who he and his brother are, as they've been protesting George Floyd's death for several days now ... and he thinks the police were simply sick of it.
UPDATE
Now, the guy who recorded this video, whose name is Mike, tells us he was never harassed or roughed up by cops like Terrel was, even though he made contact with an officer at one point. Mike says he feels it didn't happen because he's white, and Terrel is a POC.
A cop in Long Island appears to have purposefully blocked the path of a protester who was following him ... just so his buddies could pounce on the guy and arrest him.
The wild scene played out in East Meadow Saturday, where a bunch of protesters were being followed/escorted by local police ... at least some of whom were Nassau County officers, per reports. At one point, one of the protesters starts tagging alongside one of the cops up ahead, keeping in step with him momentarily ... and then attempting to pass him from behind.
The policeman notices this and abruptly stops in his tracks, so that the guy runs into him and makes slight, incidental contact. What happens next is insane ... a full-blown takedown.
It's crazy, 'cause you can see the officer almost signal to the others that he was touched ... and the rest of them swarm in and rough the dude up as they detain him. You can see at least one officer has his knee on the guy too as his fellow protesters shriek in terror.
Some eyewitnesses say the officers had their knee on this man's neck -- although it's hard to say for certain from the angle of this video.
Please report this and send visuals to my office:
— NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) June 13, 2020 @NewYorkStateAG
https://t.co/HyBuaIsyDT
Now, Nassau County police officials have responded to this incident ... and they say the disorderly conduct arrest of this man and two others was necessary. They go on to say that this protester specifically was "moving across lanes of traffic," which is what spurred the arrest.
Their response might get even further scrutiny, however, because New York Attorney General, Letitia James, reportedly responded to the video on Twitter, saying she wanted it looked into.
Originally published -- 3:04 PM PT
