Boston Community Leaders React To Video Of Officer With Hands On Man's Neck
BOSTON (CBS) -- Community leaders are reacting to a controversial video showing a Boston Police officer placing his hands on the neck of a handcuffed suspect.
Most of those who attended a community meeting on Wednesday said that the officer's actions should be considered choking.
City Councilor Ayanna Pressley said there's culpability on both sides, but added that the teenager who was shouting obscenities at police should never have been arrested.
"I wish the young man had not said such provoking things," she said. "And I wish the officer had walked away."
Pressley called the incident an "ugly" situation.
"I certainly don't believe that, what I perceived to be a choke, deescalated that situation at all," she said.
But not everyone believes it is a case of excessive force.
Rev. Eugene Rivers said after viewing that video he can see no evidence that the officer was trying to choke the 18-year-old and praised Boston police for working to foster relationships with young people in the city.
"Boston is in fact the anti-Baltimore, it is the anti-Ferguson," he said. "Police in a challenging situation exhibited significant and commendable restraint in their arresting of the young man."
Rivers aid the teen suspect was acting hostile and creating a dangerous situation for himself and others.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Kim Tunnicliffe reports:
