BOSTON (MyFoxBoston.com) - A video posted on World Star Hip Hop shows a Boston Police officer putting his hands around a young man’s neck.
It was shared across social media and has some outraged, but investigators say they were forced to deal with a potentially dangerous situation as a crowd allegedly rushed them.
“He had his hands around his neck there's no doubt about that, but I don't think there was a lot of pressure being applied because the man continued to yell and scream,” Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said.
The man was getting arrested for disorderly conduct during a drug investigation at the Archdale Housing Projects.
Police say the public doesn't see that the officers on the ground are being threatened.
In turn, an undercover officer pulled out his cellphone to record the potentially dangerous situation.
“There was some significant activity before the video started rolling that caused the police officer to be so concerned he took out his own personal cell phone to document the facts and circumstances,” former Boston Police Superintendent Dan Linskey said.
Commissioner Evans says the officers are doing the best they can to clean up the streets, but they are forced to deal with, what he says is verbal abuse.
“’F the police’ and some of the sexually explicit things they were telling us to do, that bothers me, there’s no respect for us,” Evans said.
There is an internal investigation being conducted but no police officers are facing disciplinary actions.