A video was posted on YouTube of an Uber driver as the target of roadside rage by a police detective in NYC’s West Village. The video was recorded by the passenger of the vehicle and shows the detective verbally disrespecting the driver. The NYPD has confirmed that in fact that the person shown in the video was in fact a New York City detective. But of course he didn’t realize that the passenger was recording the whole thing. Now internal affairs and the civilian complaint review board are is investigating.
At the beginning of the video, you can’t really see the police officer but you can definitely hear him. After his rant, he then proceeds to slam the driver’s door and walks back to his car. He then comes back to the car and as the Uber driver tries to apologize, but the cops continues to keep yelling and stick his head through the driver’s window.
“I don’t know what f*cking planet you think you’re on right now,” the cops said.
Uber says this incident happened during the day on Monday and no one knew the man was a cop because he wasn’t wearing a uniform and he was driving an unmarked car. To top it off, after approaching the car, he never identified himself as a police officer. Apparently, the officer failed to use his blinker when parking his car. The Uber driver drove around him, honked his horn and gestured to the officer, to use his blinker. This is what most likely set the officer off into a complete rampage.
To make matters even worse, the cop also mocked the Uber driver’s accent and broken English. The Uber driver was not given a ticket. But he has filed a complaint with the NYPD about the situation.
Uber has released a statement saying “The behavior in the video is wrong and unacceptable and we appreciate the NYPD investigating the incident.”
Check out the video below:
UPDATE:Â
UPDATE — The NYPD detective shown in the YouTube video that was discovered this past weekend has now resigned. The video that went viral in less than 24 hours, shows a Uber driver as a target of roadside rage by a unsuited police detective in the West Village.
The detective’s identity was finally released. Detective Patrick Cherry, who has been on the force for quite some time, has been transferred him out of the Joint Terrorism Task Force. When the incident happened, Officer Cherry had no idea that he was being recorded and clearly that was shown in the video. The Civilian Complaint Review Board is now investigating and it doesn’t look too good for Cherry.
If the investigations proceeds and finds that the detective was in the wrong, he could face administrative prosecution. It is all up to the police commissioner to decide if he should be punished. Police Commissioner William Bratton said that Cherry’s behavior was inappropriate.
“No good cop can watch that without a wince,” Bratton said at a news conference on Wednesday. “That officer’s behavior reflected poorly on everyone who wears our uniform.”
But of course the president of the union that represents detectives such as Cherry says that he shouldn’t be “judged by one isolated incident.”
-Bri Christian (@brirezy)
