Pete Rock , Smif-N-Wessun, and others gather at City Hall in New York to protest the NYPD

With cops like these, who needs criminals??

Nearly a week after New York City police clashed with concertgoers following an album release party last Wednesday for DJ Pete Rock and the rap group Smif-n-Wessun, the artists joined a group of activists, fans and politicians on the steps of City Hall to protest what they called police “wilding” and abuse.

“We’re saying to y’all, and y’all better listen,” New York City Councilman Charles Barron said from the lectern. “It’s not only going to be a long hot summer for us, it’s going to be a long hot summer for everybody because were not going to take this kind of stuff.”

“Don’t put us to the point where we have to figure out our own way of protecting ourselves,” Barron said to the crowd of a few dozen that had gathered. “Because we have a God given right to protect us from anyone who vamps on us.”

Witnesses and the artists themselves said the police swarmed the crowd after last week’s concert without provocation, cursing, pushing people to the ground and beating a few with fists and batons. They point to video footage shot by fans as proof of the violence they said was doled out by police.

Five people were arrested, four of whom face felony charges that include assault, inciting to riot, disorderly conduct and obstructing governmental administration.

The police said that the officers arrived at the scene shortly after midnight in response to a call from private security at the club, Tammany Hall on the Lower East Side, to assist with overcrowding inside. When officers got there, a large fight was in progress. As the police instructed people to leave the crowded venue, one patron refused and began to resist arrest and call for others to help him fight with the police, according to Paul Browne, a police spokesman. He said a group then turned on the officers, and the “police used appropriate force in effecting arrests of violent individuals who fought with officers.”

The NYPD is always on that BS. With their history of police brutality and shady protocol, how could anyone possibly believe that they “used appropriate force”?? SMH…EFFING pigs.

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