Garner Protester Yotameli Sayer Charged After Allegedly Being Filmed Punching Cop

[okaawhatever]

Source: Huffington Post

Yotameli Sayer, 22, is accused of assaulting two officers in separate incidents, both of which allegedly occurred Dec. 4 after a Staten Island grand jury decided not to indict an NYPD officer in the death of Eric Garner.

Police said Sayer was first arrested in Chelsea last week after he punched an officer during a protest. Cops confiscated his fanny pack in that incident.

ayer went to retrieve the bag at police headquarters on Tuesday, and ended up being detained on a separate alleged assault, which was captured on video, according to ABC New York.

The second incident happened during a rally outside the Staten Island Ferry later the same day. Police said they identified Sayer as a protester, clad in black and wearing a face mask, that "cold-cocked" an officer during the demonstration. The altercation was filmed and distributed through social

Continued at Link with Video

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/11/yotameli-sayer-protester-punching-cop-_n_6307894.html

[Android3.14]

1. Idiot

Asshole's behavior will only make our goals more difficult to achieve.

[Feral Child]

2. If the charges are valid, Android.

If the assailant was wearing a mask when filmed, how was he identified? I'm trying to picture a positive ID on a masked man from "action" footage. Not quite getting there.

Hollywood has tricks to clear up action footage, but IRL films of rapid movement are usually very blurred. It's difficult to anticipate movement when there's no "marks" or pre-planned choreography. If this is typical security footage, I'm doubtful about the accuracy of the identification.

I'm not attacking your post, just playing advocate. I doubt police statements, like the statement that Brown "turned into a demon".

Cops lie.

The Apologists here constantly advise us to withhold judgment. In this case I certainly am.


I agree it's stupid to get into a fist fight with Pork (any time, not just during protests) and the guy that actually did it hurt the cause.

[Freddie Stubbs]

4. Maybe they identified him by his fanny pack

[Feral Child]

5. That seems unlikely,Fred

The article seems to say that his pack was confiscated during the arrest for the 1st attack, which would mean he wasn't wearing it during the 2nd. That's ambiguous, though and we probably can't really establish a time-line from a media article. It's possible, of course that he wasn't arrested for the 1st incident until after the 2nd, and identification from the video wasn't made until after both attacks but prior to his 1st arrest.

Events during protests are necessarily chaotic and reporters aren't known for pin-point accuracy in their reports; close-enough is good enough for the media, often.

Even if he was wearing it during the 2nd altercation, that isn't definitive identification. All that can be said there is that the 2nd assailant had a similar pack, since these are mass-produced items, unless he had his name stenciled on the pack and it was clearly readable in the second.

I think the cops are making arrests based on presumption and that any charges based on that tentative identification will be dismissed in court.

Cops frequently make these kinds of arrests based on flimsy evidence, hoping they can develop more evidence once the subject is in custody. Often, by a coerced confession.

I think it's safe to assume they want to make as many arrests as possible to reduce the number of protesters through attrition, and to attempt to frighten the non-arrested into disbanding.


As a further note, we also don't know the circumstances of these fights. It's quite likely the "perpetrators" were merely defending themselves from police aggression. The officers involved aren't likely to report, "I shoved him to the ground and poised my stick to strike, whereupon I was struck by Protester X."


Their credibility is certainly questionable, just as it is in the cases that have triggered these protests.

[geek tragedy]

3. only cops get to assault and kill people on video and get away with it nt

[FLPanhandle]

6. Sounds like a legitimate charge.

Not sure why this is a news story.

[Sparhawk60]

7. He Should Have Choked the Cop

Then no charges would be filed.