A video taken by a bystander's cell phone this past weekend shows what happened when a man began yelling profanities and, according to police, inciting an already hostile crowd.
"They're making drug arrests, they're trying to make that neighborhood as safe as it can be, actually the crowds sort of set upon the officers when they were trying to make an arrest and, it's troubling the language that was thrown at them," Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said.
The officer, who Boston Police Commissioner William Evans describes as a veteran officer, is being criticized for what he did as he tried to get the man in handcuffs into a police car.
"Its unfortunate, I know the video shows our officer with his hands, we're looking at that whether procedure was followed, but I think from the video you can see, there wasn't a lot of pressure being put on him, the individual was yelling and screaming," said Commissioner Evans, "but he had to be placed in the car and that's the way the officer was trying to get him down and in the car."
Commissioner Evans says the video had been turned over to internal affairs to determine whether the officer did anything wrong.
"I've worked with him, he's a very good officer," said Commissioner Evans. "It was a heated situation but we're looking into it to see if procedure was followed."
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said, "I saw the video, and certainly yeah, he was trying to get the young man into the car, there was no choking there. If there was, he wouldn’t be able to speak. I think that there has to be a little bit of respect on behalf of the police as well here."
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Boston Police released a statement Tuesday morning which read, ""No formal complaints have been filed at this time. Our Internal Affairs Division is investigating the facts and circumstances surrounding the incident to determine whether or not the officer's actions were in compliance with our rules and regulations."
Necn reached out to the person who posted this video on Facebook, claiming he was the one being arrested in this video, but he did not return our requests seeking comment.
