New York City police roughed up an elderly man who tried to cross a busy Upper West Side street without waiting for the “walk” sign, beating him so badly that he was bloodied, one witness said.
The witness — Ian King, a 24-year-old law student at Fordham — said the man, Kang Wong, 84, was beaten by a crowd of police after he misunderstood their directions and tried to walk away from a ticket, The Daily Mail reported.
The incident started when Mr. Wong tried to cross the street without first waiting for the walk signal, The Daily Mail said. A nearby officer approached him and tried to write him a ticket, calling out commands he didn’t seem to understand, Mr. King said. So Mr. Wong then tried to walk away — and that’s when officers went ballistic, the paper reported.
“The guy didn’t seem to speak English,” said Mr. King in The New York Post report. “[The officer] stood him up against the wall and was trying to write him a ticket. The man didn’t seem to understand, and he started walking away.”
Other nearby officers surrounded and grabbed Mr. Wong, who in turn struggled, Mr. King said. The crowd of police roughed him up so much that he was left bloodied, Mr. King reported to the local press.
“The cop tried to pull him back and that’s when he began to struggle with the cop. As soon as he pushed the cop, it was like cops started running in from everywhere,” Mr. King told The New York Post.
Mr. Wong was handcuffed and hauled away, beaten and bloodied, to a local hospital, the witness said to the newspaper. Police higher-ups said they were looking into the incident.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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