Outrage continued to grow Wednesday as the police arrested three men who were seen on video hurling water over the weekend in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The officers had been sent to disperse disorderly groups at fire hydrants during a three-day heat wave and in both incidents left without arresting the assailants.
The police were still seeking at least one other man involved in one of the incidents, in Harlem, where an officer was struck in the head as he was handcuffing a man with an arrest warrant.
Police officers are often accused of using too much force, as the proliferation of cellphone cameras makes it easy for people to share events online. But the recent videos prompted a rare rebuke from the Police Department’s highest-ranking uniformed officer.
“Any cop who thinks that’s all right, that they can walk away from something like that, maybe should reconsider whether or not this is the profession for them,” said Terence Monahan, the chief of department. “We don’t take that.”
His comments followed a department memo reminding officers that while courts give civilians wide leeway to heap verbal abuse on officers, physical acts like dousing or spraying water can result in charges.
Police officials said one of the men arrested Wednesday, Courtney Thompson, 28, of Brooklyn, was seen on video dumping water on an officer in the Brownsville neighborhood Saturday. Two other men, Isaiah Scott, 23, and Chad Bowen, 28, were charged after they were recorded hurling water at officers making an arrest Sunday in Harlem, the police said. All were in custody.
Thompson was charged with obstructing government administration, disorderly conduct and harassment; Scott, of Roebling, New Jersey, was charged with criminal mischief for throwing water at a woman and damaging her phone; Bowen, of Harlem, was also charged with criminal mischief.
Donovan Richards, the chairman of the City Council committee that oversees the Police Department, said Monahan’s remarks were troubling because they criticized the officers for doing what the department preaches: exercising restraint.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.