A Manhattan man claims that cops who arrested him for disorderly conduct slammed him down on a car hood, repeatedly struck him with a baton and Maced his eyes while he was handcuffed on a Bronx street.
And he appears to have cellphone video to prove it. The crude footage of the June 20 incident involving demolition worker Raphael Jefferson shows police officers cursing at bystanders, calling Jefferson a “faggot” and shoving the 20-year-old against a parked car’s bumper after allegedly Macing />The video also shows an officer loudly smacking an object onto the street near Jefferson’s head as he lay face-down on the ground and another officer wiping the sole of his foot either on or near the Harlem man’s pants.
“He was treated like an animal,” said Jefferson’s lawyer, Justin Blitz, who has filed a notice of claim against the city, the first step to a planned police-brutality lawsuit.
“There can be no legitimate justification for hitting and striking a man who is handcuffed on the ground.”
The Police Department says Jefferson was busted for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest after he “became irate” when officers stopped him for drinking alcohol outside a store at East 167th Street and Washington Avenue.
Jefferson said he was not drinking but that he drew the cops’ ire when he walked away from them as they approached an acquaintance who was drinking a beer.
“I heard the officer say, ‘Stop. Where you going?’ ” Jefferson said.