A New York City police detective who was caught on camera screaming at an Uber driver for no apparent reason while directing racial epithets at the poor man has been severely disciplined.
Detective Patrick Cherry has been forced to turn in both his badge and his gun to his superiors, something which anyone who has ever seen an episode of NYPD Blue knows is a great humiliation for a NY cop. Cherry was also placed on modified duty – he’s now riding a desk as they say – and been removed from his position on the prestigious Joint Terrorism Task Force.
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Sanjay Seth was riding in a car driven by the Uber driver when Cherry inexplicably threw a temper tantrum at the driver called Humayun. Fortunately for us and not so fortunately for the detective, Seth filmed the entire incident and posted it on Facebook sating:
“Our Uber driver, Humayun, was abused by a police officer today in New York. The rage, door slamming, throwing items into the car, threatening arrest without cause was bad enough — but the officer’s remarks at the end really took it to another level.”
The video clearly shows Detective Cherry shouting things like, “I don’t know what fucking planet you think you’re on right now. Now sit in your fucking car and stay there!”
And “I don’t know where you’re coming from, where you think you’re appropriate in doing that; that’s not the way it works. How long have you been in this country?” This remark is what really got Cherry in trouble because of its racist tone.
NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said at a press conference Wednesday, “No good cop should watch that video without a wince. Because all good cops know that officer just made their jobs a little bit harder. In that kind of encounter, anger like that is unacceptable. In any encounter, discourtesy and obscene language like that is unacceptable. That officer’s behavior reflected poorly on everyone who wears our uniform.”
Uber spokesman Matt Wing said about the incident, “The behavior in the video is wrong and unacceptable and we appreciate the NYPD investigating the incident. We are in touch with our driver-partner who was subjected to this terrible experience and will continue to provide any support he needed.”
