Caught on video, NYPD social distancing patrols turn violent

NEW YORK (AP) — One newly surfaced video of social distancing enforcement gone wrong in New York City shows a police officer running at a black man and throwing him to the ground for mouthing off. Another shows an officer punching a man in the head as he lay pinned to a sidewalk, unable to fight back.

Despite mounting pressure from watchdogs to stop using police to enforce social distancing, Mayor Bill de Blasio stood by the practice on Thursday, saying: “We’re not going to sideline the NYPD."

“I am not making my decisions based on a very few interactions that were handled poorly or went bad," de Blasio said. "I’m making my decisions based on the millions of interactions that are going right.”

The new videos, posted online after an officer was recorded Saturday pulling a stun gun on a man and violently taking him to the ground, stand in sharp contrast to photos and video tweeted by the NYPD showing friendly officers handing out face masks and gently reminding people to stay 6 feet apart.

Police watchdogs say the conduct shown in the videos suggests officers are using social distancing during the pandemic as a pretext to harass people of color along the lines of stop and frisk, a practice curtailed in recent years in which officers stop people on the streets and search them for weapons.

“Police are using enforcement of social distancing as cover to initiate and engage in abusive broken windows policing, with threats and physical attacks against New Yorkers," Joo-Hyun Kang, the director of Communities United for Police Reform, said. “It’s time for Mayor de Blasio to step in and remove the NYPD immediately from all social distancing enforcement.”

One of the new videos shows an officer knocking a 32-year-old man to the ground with his arm Monday night in Brooklyn after police say he took a...