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The NYPD detective caught on video screaming at an Uber driver has lost his shield and gun and will be placed on administrative duty. In addition to being stripped of his badge, Detective Patrick Cherry will be placed on modified duty before being transferred out of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, The New York Post reported
“No good cop should watch that video without a wince,’ NYPD Police Chief Bill Bratton said at a press conference April 1 announcing Cherry , 38, was being placed on modified duty. “Because all good cops know that officer just made their jobs a little bit harder,” Bratton added.
Speaking to NBC 4 New York, April 3, Cherry however apologized for his rant, saying that his emotions got the better of him when he stopped to find out why the Uber driver honked. “I apologize. I sincerely apologize,” Cherry said. “People shouldn’t be treated that way. I let my emotions get the better of me and I was angry,” Cherry said. “My intention was to be courteous and then we got into an argument. There was no intention to berate or hurt deeply the driver.”
The New York Police Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau launched an investigation into the incident, which occurred in the West Village, after footage captured by a passenger was posted online. The video was recorded and uploaded to YouTube on April 30 by Uber passenger Sanjay Seth and has since amassed over 3 million views. It shows Cherry screaming and cursing at the Uber driver — identified by Seth only by his first name, Humayun — on the West Side Highway in Manhattan.
“Our Uber driver, Humayun, was abused by a police officer today in New York,” Sanjay Seth wrote on his Facebook page March 30. “The unending rage, door slamming, throwing items into the car, threatening arrest without cause was bad enough – but the officer’s remarks at the end really took it to another level,” he added.
Detective Cherry was in plainclothes and trying to park his unmarked Hyundai without signaling, when Humayun honked. The angered detective reportedly pulled over the Uber cab and launched a tirade, questioning the diver’s command of the English language as well as his driving ability. “I don’t know where you’re coming from, where you think you’re appropriate in doing that,” Cherry is seen asking Humayun in the video. “That’s not the way it works,’ he continued. ‘How long have you been in this country?’ The officer also mocks the driver’s accent throughout and his pronunciation of certain words.
The two passengers in the backseat of the car can be heard assuring the driver that he has done nothing wrong. But not heeding to their remarks, Cherry is seen returning with a ticket, after which he pounded on the car and, according to one of the passengers, threw things in the vehicle.
In the NBC interview Cherry said the video misses what prompted the confrontation. The Uber driver pulled up fast behind him as he was trying to park his unmarked patrol car on a West Village and gestured wildly in his direction, yelling, Cherry said, adding that as he pulled the Uber driver over to “clarify the problem;” the driver “got smart.” When Cherry asked for the man’s license and registration and refused to give it to him, the detective said. That’s when he says he lost his temper.
In a statement issued after the March 30 incident, Uber defended the driver and thanked NYPD for the investigation into the matter. “The behavior in the video is wrong and unacceptable and we appreciate the NYPD investigating the incident,” the statement said. “We are in touch with our driver-partner who was subjected to this terrible experience and will continue to provide any support he needs.”
Over the course of his 14-1/2 years on the force, Cherry has received a total of 13 civilian complaints against him, a New York Post report said. That complaint alleges the officer was abusive, threatened the driver with arrest, was discourteous and used offensive language regarding the driver’s apparent ethnicity, the person said.
Michael Palladino, president of the Detectives’ Endowment Association, called Cherry a person of good character and an excellent detective. He really should not be judged by one isolated incident,” Palladino told the Post.
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