Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and former presidential candidate Julián Castro are among those condemning the actions of NYPD officers shown in a viral video beating a bicyclist with batons on Wednesday night.
“Horrifying,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote above the video. “You start with the tiny possibility that two officers may be walking over to deescalate the abusive one. Instead, they join in beating a man trying to get out of traffic. This isn’t a problem of bad apples or incidents. This is an institutional and systemic crisis.”
“Breaking curfew is no excuse for senselessly beating someone on their way home,” Castro wrote.
The Daily Beast reports: The video shows a cyclist trying to get away from an officer wearing a helmet and wielding a baton, but the officer follows the cyclist and begins repeatedly striking the person’s upper right leg. Two other cops, also with batons, then start hitting the cyclist, forcing the person off the bike before the short video abruptly ends. The video doesn’t show the lead-up to the incident.
More from the New York Post: The video was taken by a driver stopped at a red light and posted to Twitter Wednesday night. It has received more than 8.5 million views as of Thursday morning. It’s unclear where the incident occurred and the video, which ends abruptly, doesn’t show what led up to it. A spokeswoman for the NYPD said, “We are aware of the video and it is under internal review.”
