Caught on tape: Police beat, kick suspects

Caught on tape: Police beat, kick suspects

Brooklyn prosecutors are reviewing surveillance video after a man said New York Police Department officers brutalized him. Nagi Benson said the officers attacked him January 1st after dispersing a large crowd celebrating the arrival of the New Year. Benson and a friend were charged with punching officers. Recently released surveillance video shows Benson being pulled into an alleyway, kicked and beaten. Benson filed notice last week that he intends to sue the city for $5 million. "These cops seem to act like a criminal organization rather than a municipal police force," Benson's lawyer, Fred Lichtmacher. NYPD officials said they hadn't seen the video and declined to comment. Patrolmen's Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch defended the officers, saying they used "necessary force." Lynch called Benson "an uncooperative suspect." The Benson case comes on the heals of another damaging beating on tape. Last week two NYPD patrolmen were suspended after a video showed them beating a handcuffed suspect.