AFRICANGLOBE – NYPD officers were caught on camera tying up a man before dumping him into a body bag and sealing it shut.
An onlooker filmed the bizarre encounter in the West Village on March 18 and posted it to YouTube on Thursday.
In the footage, a group of around five officers can be seen holding the man on the ground near the entrance of a subway station while they search him.
The officers then appear to carry the unidentified man by his hands and feet before putting him face down in a body bag, closing it, and tightening the straps as though it were a piece of luggage.
‘Dude, that is the craziest sh** I’ve ever seen done to somebody in my whole f****** life. Holy s***. What do you even call that thing?,’ the onlooker, identified as a man named Mike by Gothamist, could be heard saying as her recorded it all on his mobile device.
The events leading up to the arrest are unknown but the man was put on a gurney and carted into an ambulance, according to Gothamist.
Mike could be heard saying that the police ‘maced’ the man before allegedly kneeing him to the ground.
According to a police spokeswoman, the bag is used on emotionally disturbed individuals (EDP) who could potentially cause harm to themselves or someone else.
‘The bag is ventilated and they can breathe,’ the spokeswoman added.
The EDP bag was first produced by a company called HELGEN for the NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit, according to Gothamist.
‘The EDP Bag deploys in a split second and can be used to secure an EDP (emotionally disturbed person) in just moments. The fabric is strong and allows fluids to pass through, and can be cleaned and decontaminated easily after each use. Seven handles make it easy to manage and carry,’ according to the product description.
The price of the bag is listed as $752.88 on a police supply website.
By: Alexandra Klausner
