dash cam screen shot
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In February 2014, Steven S. Kahn, 60, was peacefully sitting in his car, had not harmed anyone and was not suspected of committing any crime. However, these facts would prove to be no defense against Burlington City police officers and their tendency that night to escalate a peaceful situation into a violent one.

The entire interaction was captured on police dashcam.

According to the Courier-Post, Michael J. McKenna, a Cherry Hill attorney representing Kahn, said the video "demonstrates a use of force by police against a 60-year-old man so excessive that it can only be called sickening."


According to a lawsuit filed on behalf of Kahn, police went to the Wawa gas station where he was parked in response to Kahn's passenger being involved in a dispute over a clerk's refusal to sell her tobacco products without an ID.

As shown on the dashcam, the situation looks peaceful enough as three officers surround the car. However, the scene quickly turns violent as the female passenger, the alleged subject of the police investigation, becomes the target of cops.

In the video, the officers are seen shouting at the woman, who is then yanked from the car and slammed on the hood of the patrol car as she is placed in handcuffs.

While this was going on, Kahn sat peacefully and calmly in his car, until he became the subject of the officers' "swift, severe and unprovoked violence," according to the suit

The Courier-Post reports,
The suit alleges Patrolman Jeremy Bright then approached Kahn and believed he saw the man "nudge" the remnants of a marijuana cigarette into a Wawa coffee cup.

Bright ordered Kahn to step out of his vehicle, then pulled him out "without giving Mr. Kahn time to unbuckle his seat belt," says the suit.

It says Bright repeatedly ordered Kahn to "stop resisting," while the Philadelphia man shouted, "I'm not doing nothing."
After the officers had slammed the 60-year-old man face down on the concrete, they knelt on him while placing him in an arm lock. Wanting to join in on the assault, officer William Lancenese, jumped in and also "applied weight and force on top of Mr. Kahn," the suit says.

As multiple cops applied their weight and force to the 60-year-old, Kahn noted that he couldn't comply with giving the officers his right arm because it was pinned underneath him by the officers' weight.

According to the lawsuit, it was at this point that Bright "suddenly and with great force" bent Kahn's left arm until it snapped.

The brutalized and tormented Kahn was then placed in handcuffs which "caused further agony and suffering," according to the suit. Then, instead of bringing him to a hospital, the injured man was brought to jail.

The 'charges' against Kahn, which apparently required such brutal force to arrest him, were all dropped as a part of a conditional plea. The entire violent interaction in the video below was carried out by these officers for no reason at all.