NYPD Officer Grabs Protester Off Street & Shoves Her In Unmarked Van (Video)

Police departments across the country are shocking officials and the public over their increasingly dramatic arrests.

The latest of these shocking arrests came on Tuesday, when plain-clothed officers grabbed a protester off the street in the middle of a demonstration, threw her into an unmarked van, and quickly sped away. As shown in a now-viral video (below), the officers were wearing shorts and T-shirts as they quickly grabbed the person and shoved her into a gray Kia van. When some concerned people moved toward the officers, uniformed police quickly peddled over and used their bicycles to keep demonstrators away.

A person who witnessed the incident, but asked not to be identified because of fears of being targeted by police, told BuzzFeed News:

“They grab her, kinda push her to the ground, push her by the neck and scoop her into the van and drive off. No words exchanged.”

See the arrest play out for yourself (below):

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NYPD has taken after Portland, protesters are getting snatched and kidnapped into unmarked vans. This was at the intersection of 2nd Ave and E 25th st in Manhattan. Did my best to make this chronological while using my phone. First video is from a kind onlooker that allowed me to share, the rest are mine.

A post shared by Something like a Journalist (@naptimehacker) on Jul 28, 2020 at 3:13pm PDT

OMG!

The person arrested by the department’s Warrant Squad has been identified as 18-year-old Nikki Stone, who was wanted for “criminal mischief and making graffiti for 5 incidents ranging from June through July,” according to the NYPD.

The department tweeted that Stone was wanted for damaging police cameras “during five separate criminal incidents in and around City Hall Park,” explaining of the arrest:

“The Warrant Squad uses unmarked vehicles to effectively locate wanted suspects.”

The department’s statement also claimed that the “arresting officers were assaulted with rocks and bottles,” however no rocks or bottles can be seen being thrown at the officers in the multiple short videos posted to social media.

The intense moment was compared to similar arrests in Portland, where Black Lives Matter protesters say federal officers deployed by President Donald Trump are increasing tensions and violating civil rights by roaming the streets in unmarked vans and detaining people without probable cause.

Militarized Federal Agents from a patchwork of outside agencies have begun policing Portland (in rented minivans vans) without the explicit approval of the mayor, the state, or local municipalities. This is what that looks like in practice: pic.twitter.com/losap4SsgI

— The Sparrow Project (@sparrowmedia) July 15, 2020

Portland resident Mark Pettibone told Oregon Public Broadcasting he was detained on July 15 by a group of federal officers merely because he “happened to be wearing black on a sidewalk in downtown Portland at the time… that apparently is grounds for detaining me.” Officials have called these arrests unlawful — and now NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio joins those critics after PooTUS threatened to deploy federal officers to the Big Apple as well.

In response to Trump’s threat, De Blasio sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security, telling acting Secretary Chad Wolf that agents who “engage in tactics like those in Portland, will not help fight crime — it will undermine public trust in law enforcement.” The letter continued:

“What federal officials are doing in Portland — arresting individuals without notice, the use of excessive force, and other apparent acts — is in violation of those rights and it is not welcomed in New York.”

The mayor addressed the NYPD arrest at a press conference Wednesday, saying “it was the wrong time and the wrong place to effectuate that arrest,” but added that vandalizing police property is a “real offense…that could lead to an arrest.”

Still, he said he would talk to the police commissioner about “a better way to get that done,” adding:

“A lot of us have watched, in pain, what’s been going on in Portland, Oregon… So anything that even slightly suggests that, is to me, troubling and is the kind of thing that we don’t want to see in this city.”

As for the NYC protester, she had reportedly been released from custody as of Wednesday morning. Thoughts on these tactics, Perezcious readers??

[Image via WENN]