Another NY DA mess. You make the call. New York City Cop Acquitted Three Years After Punching Suspect Who Refused to Leave Apple Store.
It seems as if the NY DA has a history of going after the good guy and losing. This current prosecutor sticks out like a sore thumb Adds credence to those who say affirmative action at work.
Officer Salvatore Provenzano, a 17-year veteran of the New York Police Department (NYPD), was charged with third-degree assault in 2023 — two years after a body camera captured the October 2021 interaction between him and Kamal Cheikhaoui, a man who had repeatedly refused to leave the Upper West Side store, CBS News reported.
Cheikhaoui, whom the New York Post described as a “repeat offender,” was reportedly acting “unruly” in the Apple Store before security asked him to leave, prompting Provenzano and other cops to step in to remove him.
Body camera footage that another responding officer captured begins with Cheikhaoui loudly demanding to purchase merchandise and trying to push past security as Provenzano takes him by the arm and leads him toward the exit. When the suspect gets loose from his grasp and suddenly turns, the officer strikes him in the face:
DA Bragg’s office convened a grand jury, which indicted the officer two years later.
Police union representatives happily announced on Thursday that the charges had finally been dropped.
The Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York (PBA), which represents more than 50,000 active and retired NYPD officers, said it was “grateful to get justice, but Manhattan prosecutors should never have brought the case in the first place.”
“This DA has to stop targeting New York City police officers and go after criminals. It needs to end now,” PBA President Patrick Hendry said during a press briefing. Bragg’s thoughts?
“We work in close partnership with the NYPD every day, and I have immense respect for the officers in uniform,” Bragg said in a statement. “I thank our prosecutors for their hard work and Judge Wiley for his careful and thoughtful consideration of this matter.”
