NYPD slams viral videos of officers being doused with water and pelted with objects, calls attacks 'reprehensible'
HARLEM, NEW YORK: The New York Police Department released a statement on Tuesday after multiple videos of officers being doused with water and pelted with objects on separate occasions surfaced online on July 22.
The NYPD slammed the videos and called them "reprehensible."
In one of the videos, a person can be seen hurling a bucket that hit an officer in the head while he was making an arrest in Harlem.
The clip also showed a group of jeering bystanders as people continued to throw water at the police officers.
NYPD Chief Terence Monahan, in a tweet on July 22, said: "The videos of cops being doused with water and having objects hurled at them as they made an arrest in #Harlem is reprehensible. NYC’s cops & communities have made remarkable progress — together — but EVERY New Yorker MUST show respect for our cops. They deserve nothing less."
Monahan later wrote another tweet, saying: "To NY’s Finest: the work you do every day is remarkable. We trust you to do what is a very difficult job.”
The police chief also encouraged officers to use their discretion and make arrests whenever necessary. "Thank you for what you do day in and day out," Monahan wrote. "Please stay safe."
In a similar video which has also gone viral on social media, uniformed NYPD cops were seen getting drenched as they walked in a street in Brooklyn.
The clip showed a man approaching an officer and dousing a bucket of water directly on the cop's head.
The officers in the clip remained calm and appeared to ignore the entire situation and walk away.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio also denounced the videos on Monday and said that these incidents are "completely unacceptable."
"A video from the 28 Precinct [Harlem] shows people interfering in an arrest by throwing water and objects at officers," the Democrat wrote in a tweet. "The NYPD kept New Yorkers safe through the heatwave and last night's outages. We won't tolerate this kind of disrespect."
The mayor also added that the NYPD has launched an investigation into these incidents.
The Police Benevolent Association (PBA) of the City of New York also released a statement on the water attacks on police officers, however, they blamed lawmakers for the incidents instead, according to Fox News.
"Our anti-cop lawmakers have gotten their wish: the NYPD is now frozen," PBA president Patrick Lynch said, adding that the "attacks" were "the end result of the torrent of bad policies and anti-police rhetoric that has been streaming out of City Hall and Albany for years now. We are approaching the point of no return.”He went on to say that “disorder controls the streets” and “elected leaders refuse to allow us to take them back. The politicians may not care about the dangerous levels of chaos in our neighborhoods, but police officers and decent New Yorkers should not be forced to suffer.”