Shocking video captured an NYPD officers pummeling a homeless man until he was apparently unconscious as cops try to clear encampments tha...
Shocking video captured an NYPD officers pummeling a homeless man until he was apparently unconscious as cops try to clear encampments that have sprung up around crime-plagued New York City.
The video shows the unidentified officer landing blow after blow on a homeless man he was trying to arrest on a sidewalk in Greenwich Village.
'Oh, he knocked him out! He's not moving,' a bystander can be heard saying in the video, which was posted Thursday.
It is not clear when the incident took place. A spokesperson for Mayor Bill de Blasio did not comment on the incident. Spokespersons for the NYPD and Mayor-elect Eric Adams did not respond
An officer is attempting to detain this homeless main as they clear out an encampment in Manhattan
A struggle begins after the homeless man appears to try and get up while being detained
A second officer arrives from the left to assist the first as the officers struggle the homeless man to the ground
The first officer is then seen throwing about a half dozen punches to the man's midsection
The first officer emerges from the incident as the homeless man lies motionless, with multiple people declaring he was 'knocked out'
The video, posted by WorldStar.com, begins with the officer attempting to handcuff the prone homeless man along restaurant-lined McDougal Street in the trendy neighborhood.
The man tries to stand up and grabs the cops leg before his partner rushes over to knock the vagrant back to the ground, according to the video.
The cop grabs for his gun belt as the two tumble to the ground before the officer throws a half-dozen punches that seemingly connected with the man's head and midsection, the video shows.
The beaten man is seen lying motionless after the officers step away for the remaining 25 seconds of the 37-second clip.
The incident comes as homelessness in the city has reached its highest levels since the Great Depression. Overcrowded homeless shelters have led to encampments sprouting up in nearby Tompkins Square Park, as well as under bridges spanning the East River.
The number of single adults sleeping in municipal shelters spiked by 103 percent in the past decade - from 25,000 to 50,000 - and has continued to soar since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the New York Coalition for the Homeless.
There were 47,979 homeless people - including 14,881 homeless children - sleeping each night in the NYC municipal shelter system in August 2021, according to the agency. In the same month, there were 18,357 single adults in shelters.
The coalition added that thousands of homeless people sleep throughout the streets, subways and other public spaces but there is 'no accurate measure' of such data and city surveys 'significantly underestimate the number of unsheltered homeless New Yorkers'.
Many have said that de Blasio's attempts to handle an already existing mental health crisis have only exacerbated it despite De Blasio facing regular condemnation for being too soft on crime and its causes.
Just last week, the lame-duck mayor again blamed the courts for NYC's skyrocketing crime numbers as he touted a small decrease in the murder rate while ignoring the jump in overall crime.
According to the NYPD's crime stats, through November 7, felony assaults are up 8.3 percent, while rapes and robberies are up 2 percent each and overall crimes are up 1.7 percent.
But De Blasio cited statistics claiming that felony trials are down 92 percent from 2019. He also said pleas in felony cases are down 53 percent and sentencing is down 55 percent.
'I'll tell you what's not working, and this is a profound problem: Our court system,' De Blasio said at his press conference Wednesday.
A spokesman for the city's court system slammed de Blasio's comments in a statement provided to DailyMail.com.
'Someone should alert the Mayor that Charles Lindbergh made it to Paris, since that would mirror how out of touch the Mayor is regarding activity in the New York Courts,' said spokesman Lucian Chalfen.
Powers was also not too keen on the city's present - and future - government officials.
A homeless encampment was pictured on the entrance to the Manhattan Bridge in Brooklyn on Monday
The homeless crisis in New York appears to increase as more people are left without a place to stay
A makeshift shelter was made with two umbrellas and garbage cans. It was pictured surrounded with water bottles, carts and even a pet carrier
A homeless person sleeps in front of ABC studios in Times Square as people watch the taping of the show through the window
After noting that he thinks President Biden is too old and has Alzheimer's while Vice President Kamala Harris 'doesn't seem fit to run the country,' he added that he also wasn't too happy with De Blasio or Eric Adams's sweeping victory in NYC's mayoral election.
Adams, a former NYPD officer, has vowed to stamp down on violent crime in the city after it recorded more than 1,500 shootings in 2020 - nearly twice as many as 2019.
Violence in the Big Apple so far in 2021 is also at its highest level since the early 2000 after Mayor Bill de Blasio sought to slash $1billion from the police budget despite the surging crime rate.
'Not all black people are cool,' Powers said when talking about Adams, noting that he was fearing the former police officer would bring back the Stop-and-Frisk policy, which drew attention to cops racial profiling and was deemed unconstitutional in 2013.
He predicted that if the policy resurfaced many people struggling with addiction on the streets would be thrown into jail instead of getting proper help.
'Anti-crime was good with gun violence but now all gun crime is gang-related,' he told DailyMail.com before citing a string of fatal shootings that happened in Brooklyn over the summer.
Shooting victims rocketed by 12 percent, from 944 between January and the start of August 2020, to 1,057 from the start of 2021 to August of this year.
'It was all Bloods,' Powers said, referring to the street and prison gang known for its rivalry to the Crips.
The conflict between the two gangs originated on the west coast. The United Blood Nation (UBN) - also known as the East Coast Bloods - is a faction of the California-based gang and is active in NYC.
'That's how you get into a gang. You shoot someone. Not someone from a rival gang but any person,' he said, noting that going to prison gives the gang members ' more street cred'.
A homeless man was pictured near Washington Square Park in Manhattan as it was revealed the city's vagrant population has doubled to 50,000 in a decade
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