If you hang around #NewYork long enough, even the most bitter of rivals can end up on the same side sometimes. Take the Legal Aid Society, a perennial watchdog and longtime critic of the NYPD, and the Police Benevolent Association, whose unofficial motto is that cops can do no wrong. Despite social distancing regulations, the polar opposite groups became strange bedfellows over … social distancing enforcement. PBA leaders think cops shouldn’t be the ones on the street telling people how far apart they should stand to combat coronavirus. And the Legal Aid Society rightfully agrees. “This situation is untenable: the #NYPD needs to get cops out of the social distancing enforcement business altogether,” PBA President Patrick Lynch said in a statement. “The cowards who run this city have given us nothing but vague guidelines and mixed messages, leaving the cops on the street corners to fend for ourselves.” Lynch’s comments were in response to yet another viral video of one of #NewYork’s Finest using his fists on a bystander whose only noticeable crimes were witnessing an arrest and saying something about it. Donni Wright was threatened with a Taser, and ordered to “Move the f--k back,” and when he didn’t retreat fast enough, he was slapped, thrown to the ground and punched by a cop in plain clothes who looked like he watched a lot of mixed martial arts. #Cops initially said Wright, 33, had taken a fighting stance, but even #MayordeBlasio and #Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said Officer Francisco Garcia went too far when he took Wright down and used his knee to pin Wright’s head to the pavement. The caught-on-camera beatdown began when Garcia and other plainclothes cops on patrol in the #EastVillage told a crowd to disperse as part of the city’s coronavirus social distancing crackdown. The stop quickly escalated into a marijuana bust, although the #Manhattan DA’s office announced Monday it was deferring prosecutions against Wright and the other two suspects arrested during the incident. Garcia has been stripped of his gun and shield and placed on modified duty. (SWIPE LEFT) https://www.instagram.com/p/B_1s0PBAMu1/?igshid=1rrgpb8umy6n1
