On an unseasonably warm but? balmy Christmas Eve night, what started out as a harmless video stunt that brought laughter to many in the past called #DanceDare made popular by TV show host Ellen DeGneneres became extremely disturbing. All thanks to the humorless school yard bully thugs of the New York City Police Department.? The idea #DanceDare is to dance beyond someone without noticing while its being filmed. It seems harmless enough. Right? Well not when you put cops in the mix. Which is all too apparent in this video ? posted by YouTube personality Alexander BOK.
BOK, who established himself on YouTube in April of this year, has already created a large body of work as a YouTube vlogger. His work is combination of harmless pranks, social experiments, and comedy. It is unfortunate that? somebody whose goal is to bring? joy and humor to people’s lives is not immune to police brutality.
The video starts off with music and him dancing beyond the unknown officer. It is obvious that he is at least an arms length away from the officer and at no point is he touching the officer. It is also obvious that BOK wasn’t doing anything that could remotely be perceived as threatening. However, once the officer got wind of BOK dancing behind him hostility and a loud string profanities ensued. The cop angrily asked “what the f*** is wrong with you?” then he asked him why he was dancing in the street. Before BOK could calmly explain what he was doing he was slammed against a police van and berated and questioned further by other officers. He was also frisked.
After the officers couldn’t manage to find (or manufacture) any evidence of illegal activity they shoved BOK to the ground and cursed him out. When videos like these constantly appear it shows why the NYPD has such a large volume of excessive force complaints and lawsuits against their force. I’ll admit, it is possible that some of these lawsuits could be baseless and fabricated by disgruntled suspects and dishonest lawyers out to make a quick buck. However, there is no way in hell that happens ten times a day. Especially since there is more and more of this blatant misconduct on video. The NYPD seems to have an abundance of cops acting like shiftless school yard bullies than the respectful, kind, and professional public servants they ought to be. When the core values of the department are Courtesy, Professionalism, and Respect, we as tax payers are owed that much. Any officer who can’t deliver that on the job needs to find a new career.
Readers, please show Alexander BOK some love by liking him on facebook and subscribing to his youtube channel.
Watch video of the assault below:
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