The NYPD detective who was caught on video chewing out an Uber driver has been stripped of his shield and gun, and will be placed on modified duty, Police officials said.
Detective Patrick Cherry has been removed from the department’s elite Joint Terrorism Task Force and will be doing desk duty until he is officially transferred out of the prestigious division.
“No good cop should watch that video without a wince,” Commissioner Bill Bratton said at a Wednesday press conference. “Because all good cops know that officer just made their jobs a little bit harder.”
“In that kind of encounter, anger like that is unacceptable,” Bratton continued. “In any encounter, discourtesy and obscene language like that is unacceptable.
“That officer’s behavior reflected poorly on everyone who wears our uniform.”
The incident was being investigated by the Internal Affairs Bureau before being taken over by the Civilian Complaint Review Board, police said.
The CCRB on Wednesday interviewed Sanjay Seth, the passenger who captured the belittling rant on his cell phone, according to the man’s Twitter page.
In the video posted on Youtube Monday, Cherry blows up in the driver’s face after the Uber driver apparently honked at him and gave him the finger as he tried to park his unmarked car along the West Side Highway in Greenwich Village.
“Just gave testimony to CCRB,” Seth wrote Wednesday. “The investigation is in their hands. Here’s to a quick, fair, and thorough resolution to this incident.”
If a CCRB judge finds Cherry guilty of misconduct, he could end up with a permanent mark on his record, sources said. But any disciplinary action would be solely up to Bratton, who ultimately has final say.
Warning: Graphic language
The one-sided shouting match was recorded by Seth as he and another man were riding in the backseat of the driver’s vehicle, and shows Cherry barking into the driver’s face through the an open door, at times mocking the man’s accent.
“Stop it with your mouth. Stop it with your ‘For what sir, for what sir.’ Stop it with that bull s—t, and realize the three vehicle and traffic laws you committed,” Cherry screams during the three minute tirade.
“I don’t know what f–king planet you think you’re on right now. Now sit in your f—ing car and stay there,” he shouts before slamming the door.
The abuse continues when the Cherry walks back to the car and starts to speak to the driver, identified in the video only as “Humayun.”
But when the driver responds with an “Okay,” the cops goes off on him again.
But when the driver responds with an “Okay,” the cops goes off on him again.
“Okay what? You don’t let me f—ing finish. Stop interrupting me,” he screams. “Who do you think you’re talking to here?”
“Everytime I open my mouth, you have something to say.”
The officer was trying to park an unmarked car along the West Side Highway in Greenwich Village without using a blinker, according to statements made in the video.
That’s when the Uber driver pulled around and flipped the plainclothes cop off — sending him into a rage.
“Youre driving up my a— when I’m trying to park the car and then you have to do something with your hands,” he says.
“I don’t know where you’re coming from, where you think you’re appropriate in doing that; that’s not the way it works. How long have you been in this country?”
At the end of the video, the cop tells the shell-shocked driver that the only reason he isn’t being arrested is because he’s too busy.