The New York police officer was disciplined after video evidence of a tirade with racial overtones against an Uber driver went viral, initially reported by the New York Post and confirmed by CNN.
The New York Police Department admonished Detective Patrick Cherry, a member of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, by putting him on desk duty and taking away his badge and gun following an internal investigation and a formal complaint against the department. He faces faces suspension, reassignment or loss of his clearance.
NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said Cherry’s behavior reflected poorly on other police officers and made their jobs harder.
“No good cop should watch that video without a wince,” he said. “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. In any encounter, discourtesy and obscene language like that is unacceptable. That officer’s behavior reflected poorly on everyone who wears our uniform,” Bratton said.
The video (below) captured by Uber passenger Sanjay Seth showed Cherry berating an Uber driver seemingly for honking and and flipping off the officer who apparently failed to use of a turn signal when parking his unmarked car.
The officer responded by threatening to haul the driver in for alleged traffic infractions and seemed frustrated with the driver’s accent and that he wasn’t American-born.
“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?” Cherry shouted in the video.
“The only reason you’re not in handcuffs going to jail and getting summonses in the precinct is because I have things to do. This isn’t important enough for me. You’re not important enough.”
The video was submitted along with a formal complaint to New York City’s Civilian Complaint Review Board, an independent agency that handles police misconduct complaints. Detective Cherry has been reported to the board for verbal abuse at least a dozen times in the past 10 years, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Watch the entire video below: