Nasty NYC cop caught on camera

Nasty NYC cop caught on camera

NEW YORK - A New York City police officer has been filmed verbally abusing an ice cream vendor.

The police officer did not care about being taped and told the vendor "Go for it", the New York Daily News reported.

In the video, recorded over the summer on a camera phone and released by the Street Vendor Project group on YouTube on Thursday, the woman police officer was filmed dancing in a circle and yelling obscenities at the vendor.

When the vendor called her a maniac and asked why she was acting that way, the cop yelled: "What is wrong with you? What is wrong with you?"

The Street Vendor Project is a group devoted to supporting the city's 20,000 street tradesmen, many of whom are immigrants or military veterans, the newspaper reported.

The small businesses are often bullied or overlooked by city officials, the campaign group claims.

"We hear it every day," project director Sean Basinski told the newspaper, referring to the incident.

"Officers who deal with street vendors use bad language and threaten to arrest them when they pull out a video phone. We never had any proof until now."

The ice cream man who filmed the video is not planning to file a report with the city's Civilian Complaint Review Board, said Mr Basinski.

"We're not angry at this particular cop or out to get her," he said. "We just want the police to train their officers to respect street vendors.

"They have 'Courtesy, Professionalism and Respect' put on the side of their cars ... they have to live up to it."


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