Victim in Videotaped Police Beating Speaks Out
Ehud Halevy, the Jewish man whose beating at the hands of two New York City police officers earlier this month was captured on videotape, reportedly called the cops’ actions “irresponsible and not ethical.”
Halevy spoke with the New York Times recently about the October 8 incident inside a youth center in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
Halevy told the Times that Officer Luis A. Vega, “told me to leave,” and “I told him I had a right and permission to stay where I am. He wouldn’t listen. I swore at him. He tried handcuffing me. I pulled my hand away, and then he started beating me up.”
Halevy was pepper sprayed and punched numerous times in the head and body. After having watched the video, Halevy described the officers’ actions as, “irresponsible and not ethical.”
Halevy had been given permission to sleep inside the Aliya center, but police were called when a security guard found Halevy shirtless on a couch in the facility.
On Wednesday, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office formally dismissed all charges against Halevy for assaulting a police officer.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
