NYPD Brutality Questions At Hip Hop Album Release Party In NYC

Police attack, beat and bully party goers last night at a Smif-N-Wessun and Peat Rock show and album release party in Brooklyn. The above video taken by the UK’s Jay Diamond shows the chaos in action. Several NYPD officers can clearly be seen beating people with nightsticks in the video.

Now that the smoke has cleared the finger pointing has begun. Club goers point to the NYPD as the cause of elevating a routine situation to a situation that has reached the attention of national news. The NYPD say they were attacked and responded appropriately for their safety and that of the public.



Whomever is at fault the fact remains people were hurt on both sides. Police are known to over react and do tend to blow situations out of proportion and get very dictatorial. The often quoted line “to protect and serve” often leads to “control and dictate.” There needs be more training and understanding on how to diffuse a situation without force. Adults aren’t used to being treated like children and quite honestly don’t react to it well.

On the other hand, these small situations can be very dangerous for an officer to walk into. Again there needs to be a meeting of understanding from both sides.

With video cameras in every pocket these moments get to be scene more often than ever before. This helps to decipher the he said she said that inevitably follows. Police have been fighting to make it illegal to film them at all. Several states have passed the law. These days law enforcement at all levels seem to push, with their ever intrusive privacy violations, the idea of “if you aren’t doing anything wrong you have nothing to hide.” The reverse applies as well. In any case, as police brutality questions especially in urban neighborhoods are an issue, people should continue to film them for their own safety. Ask Rodney King.

Additional:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43589807/ns/local_news-new_york_ny/
http://www.onetwoonetwo.com/news/1-latest/2602-police-beat-attendees-of-smif-n-wessun-album-release-party
http://www.onetwoonetwo.com/news/1-latest/2611-pete-rock-steele-and-louis-skagg-talk-brutality-outside-the-courtroom

Jaylon Carter

Jaylon Carter is a blogger, social media marketing consultant, former Congressional Campaign Media & Communications Director, national labor union vice block leader, and a Hip Hop artist who performs under the stage name Timid (@timidmc).