Police arrested a Brownsville man Wednesday for dousing two of their own in water on East New York Avenue on July 20.
The 28-year-old emptied a bucket of water onto the two officers between Sterlin and St Johns places around 4 p.m., which was caught on video and went viral on social media.
The two drenched officers from the 73rd Precinct walked away from the man without reacting to him, the video shows.
Police arrested the man just after 10 a.m. Wednesday outside that precinct, but a spokesman for the department couldn’t clarify to this paper whether he turned himself in or if officers picked him up somewhere else.
Cops slapped him with misdemeanor charges for obstructing government administration, criminal nuisance, tampering with their equipment, and two violations of disorderly conduct and harassment, according to the spokesman.
The incident, along with a similar one in Harlem, went viral on social media and drew widespread condemnation from politicians, police unions, and senior police officials.
In Harlem, a video even shows one of the soakers throwing a bucket at a policeman’s head.
Two of three suspects have been arrested for that incident but officials are still looking for a third person there, the Police’s Chief of Department Terence Monahan said on social media Wednesday.
The top cop took to Twitter after today’s arrests to say that disrespecting the Boys in Blue won’t be tolerated and that the culprits will face consequences for their actions.
“Actions like we’ve seen in videos recently will NEVER be tolerated in this city. YOU WILL BE ARRESTED,” he tweeted.
Former New York City Mayor — and current lawyer for President Donald Trump — Rudy Giuliani also came out of the woodwork to slam Mayor Bill de Blasio as “incompetent” in an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity, saying that Hizzoner undid his legacy of reducing crime rates across the five boroughs.
The head of a police union for rank-and-file cops condemned the city and state’s politicians as well as the district attorneys for causing people to lose respect for law enforcement by not prosecuting lower offenses more harshly, and called on lawmakers to upgrade throwing water at an officer from a misdemeanor to a felony.
“We are calling on City Hall and Albany to roll back the existing policies that have emboldened criminals, and to create meaningful penalties for anyone who harasses or interferes with a police officer in the course of his or her official duties,” Patrick Lynch, president of the Police Benevolent Association, said in a prepared statement Tuesday. “At a minimum, there should be a felony charge for assaulting a police officer by throwing or spraying water or any other substance, and a misdemeanor charge for the attempt to do so. It’s time for lawmakers to take a stand against disorder, on behalf of their constituents and the cops who protect them.”
