During the altercation, the police smashed the man's head against the side of a pool and threw him against the ground repeatedly. The man showed no signs of fighting or violence and was simply making himself "dead weight" and attempting to sit down on the ground.
According to the witness, Ariel Rivera, the arrest was taking place because the man was caught with a bag of "dope," but it was not specified whether this was marijuana heroin or another drug. For those that are unaware, "dope" is a slang that is used to describe many different drugs. However, regardless of the type of drug that this man was in possession of, he had not hurt anyone and was not fighting back against the officers.
"3 Philadelphia police officers beat the bs out of this guy over one bag of dope smh share to stop this police brutality. The reason I recorded it and posted it and pushed for people to share it is because this isn't something that happens once in a blue moon in our neighborhood, this is very common. A lot of people go through stuff like this. Our community is bad enough already, to be honest, we should not have to fear calling the police," Rivera said.
A police spokesman declined to provide any official details on the case but did say that the 21-year-old man is in the hospital. They would not reveal what he was arrested for or what type of injuries he sustained.
According to Rivera, the victim of the assault is a homeless man who sleeps in a nearby park. She believes that the police were running the homeless people out of the park.
"They must have raided and arrested people in the park...and he began to run from them. I saw police were kicking this guy in his head and hitting him with their batons before I started recording," Rivera said.
During the altercation, a group of bystanders pleaded for the police to take it easy on the man, but they ignored the crowd and formed a chain around him.
Kensington is known by locals as one of the worst drug areas in the city, especially for heroin addicts. So, the response to this video has been very mixed, with some people fed up with police brutality, and just as many fed up with the area's heroin epidemic.
Although it is not clear that heroin was the substance that the man was arrested with, it is assumed to be the case by many locals because that specific park was known to be a heroin hotspot.
Rivera did not expect the type of backlash that she received after posting the video.
"This wasn't something I posted to divide people, this is something I posted to spread awareness. The police officers that do their job well deserve to have respect and those that don't need to be held accountable," Rivera said.
An internal affairs investigation was opened after the video went viral.
Then,there are pure PIGS.Bullies in nice uniforms of brutality.
PIGS bring their profession into disrepute.
In this world,everyone pays for the actions of the minority