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In a disturbing scene that harkens back to a violent movie, one NJ transit officer has been shown to be hitting a man and shouting at him, as he lies helplessly on the ground.
Watch the video below, with a violence warning:
NJ Transit officials say that they are investigating the video. It was taken on Saturday and shows the transit police officer for New Jersey’s train system hitting the man and punching him in the head.
The incident occurred on Saturday night, outside the Trenton Transit Center, according to authorities who spoke on the matter on Monday.
These authorities have confirmed it is indeed one of their officers in the video.
How did this video get recorded?
An unnamed woman says that she was just waiting nearby to be picked up at the Trenton Transit Center, where the incident happened that Saturday night.
Soon, she heard a commotion.
As many have done in the reporting of disturbing incidents that eventually go viral in their exposure of abuse by authorities, she pulled out her phone and started recording.
In the video, the officer is clearly seen dragging a man and yelling at him to “Get up,” several times–while slamming him against the pavement.
The man he’s slamming around appears to be lying motionless on the sidewalk, but within seconds, the officer drags him again, cursing at him and putting his fists on him.
“There was no resisting,” said the woman, explains, preferring to stay anonymous, when interviewed by ABC News Action 6 Philadelphia. “He wasn’t even speaking. I was torn on what to do. I thought this was the best thing, so that going forward this might not happen to someone else.”
According to her, the man had simply been sitting against a wall when she had walked out of the Transit Center, moments before the scuffle.
She began recording but only caught about a minute on her phone, she explains, because her phone’s battery was low. The phone died right after she had recorded for about a minute.
“After my phone died it continued to happen,” the woman reports. “The berating. Probably another five minutes. Dragging him on the cement and dragging his face on the ground.”
It is not known from the video what happened prior to the NJ Transit officer beating the seemingly helpless man.
“I don’t know if anything occurred,” the woman said. “I’m not speculating that anything did. I can only attest to what I saw. And what I saw wasn’t warranted.”
In light of these events, the woman says that says she is actually an avid supporter of police.
She took and posted this video, with the hope that it results in more training or more education for all police officers.
This incident is one of many incidents that have been captured, either by civilians, or by installed video cameras, or body cameras, showing police officers beating victims who appear to be helpless.
Just two days ago, ABC News reported this incident of a Denver police officer beating a victim [DISTURBING VIOLENCE WARNING]:
After suspect berated the police officer in that video, allegedly spitting on his feet and face, the Denver police officer punched the handcuffed man unconscious. Of note is that the man was already arrested and handcuffed. The Denver police officer is under investigation after the above incident.
Now, just days later, this NJ Transit police officer is under investigation.
As reported by ABC 6 Action News Philadelphia, New Jersey Transit Police released a statement to Action News saying, “We are thoroughly looking into this incident.”
The statement was updated as of Monday morning, saying:
“The matter is currently under investigation with New Jersey Transit Police Department’s Internal Affairs. The officer has been placed on administrative suspension pending the results of that investigation.”
More details will be reported.
The officer has now been suspended until then.