ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Anti-police brutality activists voiced outrage and demanded accountability Monday after the video appeared over the weekend of an officer placing his knee in the area of a man’s head and neck in front of a Pennsylvania hospital.
Allentown police released a much longer surveillance video of the incident showing the officer placing his knee on the man’s head and neck twice while being held a few steps from the entrance to the emergency room, the first time during eight seconds, the second for 20 seconds
The man appeared to be “having a medical, mental health or drug and alcohol crisis,” police said in a statement Monday night.
Police violated their own policy against neck restraints when an officer used his knee to hit the man’s head, activists said, while the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania called it an illegal use of force.
Hundreds of people marched in downtown Allentown on Monday night, calling for the officer to be fired and for police funds to be reallocated for education, mental health and other social services.
“These police officers should not have restricted it. I needed help, ”said Maegan Llerena of Make the Road Pennsylvania, an advocacy group. “Not even two months after George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis, there was a knee in the neck of a man in front of a hospital. What is that? Can anyone explain that to me?”
Police launched an internal investigation.
The video-recorded incident occurred nearly seven weeks after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee to the neck of Floyd, a black man, for nearly eight minutes. Floyd’s death in police custody sparked worldwide protests over police brutality and racial injustice.
“I can’t believe this is really happening now and here,” said Justan Parker, founder of the Allentown-based Black Lives Matter in Lehigh Valley.
The group released a list of lawsuits, including the posting of any police camera video of the incident, the suspension of the officers involved, the name and condition of the man, the establishment of a regional criminal justice review board, and a reassignment of police funds.
The short video of the viewer, filmed from a passing vehicle and posted on social media, shows Allentown officers restraining the man on the ground outside the emergency room on the Sacred Heart Campus of St. Luke’s Hospital. An officer had his elbow on the man’s neck before changing to a knee to hold him while other officers held his arms.
In the quiet 9:38 am surveillance video released Monday night, the man can be seen staggering on the street and sidewalk, vomiting several times and stopping at the entrance to the emergency room.
Two of the three officers at the scene approached the man after several minutes and attempted to handcuff him, and the man appeared to resist. One of the officers swept the man’s leg to take him to the ground. Soon after, the other officer put his knee on the man’s head and neck.
An earlier police statement said the man had started yelling and spitting at officers and hospital staff, adding that the man “was not in compliance, requiring officers to contain him.” Surveillance video shows a hospital employee placing what police called a “breathable saliva mask” over the man’s head, which is used to protect staff, officers and others from contact with body fluids.
The man was treated at the hospital and released, police said.
The ACLU criticized the police explanation.
The “appalling excuse from the police department for an officer to illegally place his knee on a man’s neck is that he was mentally distressed and was not complying,” the group tweeted in response to the viewer’s shorter video. The police should NOT be the first. responders to those in a mental health crisis. “
Lawyer Benjamin Crump, who represents Floyd’s family, tweeted the viewer’s video, writing that the restriction used by the unidentified officer is “exactly what led to # GeorgeFloyd’s death.” Crump demanded the officer’s name.
Police have not released the name or race of anyone seen in the video. Community advocates said they were trying to identify the man in the video to offer support.
“During a health crisis, whatever it is, when he should have been supported, he was instead criminalized and got a knee in the neck,” said Hasshan Batts, executive director of Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley, a community of Allentown. group.
Police said their internal investigation is moving rapidly. The Lehigh County District Attorney’s office assigned two detectives to the internal investigation and planned to issue findings later this week.
“Our investigation is ongoing and as we uncover additional information, we try to disclose it as much as we can,” said Deputy Police Director Bill Lake.
Although Allentown police use body cameras, Lake declined to say Monday whether there is a police video of the incident.
A spokesman for St. Luke said the hospital released its own video to police.
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