Officers Under Investigation After They Were Filmed Assaulting A Man By Taking A knee To His Neck

Police officers from Allentown, Pennsylvania were caught on cell phone footage assaulting man during arrest with one of the officers taking a knee to the man's neck while others pin him down - barely weeks after the police department banned the abusive and deadly neck restraints and chokeholds.

The footage of the officers' actions prompted heavy widespread backlash because it was the same restraint method that caused George Floyd’s death back in May. Floyd’s death sparked Black Lives Matter protests around the world and in the nation, which are still going on today.

Floyd’s attorney Ben Crump and Black Lives Matter to Lehigh Valley leader Justan Parker expressed their disgust at seeing the video.

"We’re done. People think that it couldn’t happen here and it has been happening and it happened yesterday. So enough is enough,” Parker said.

BREAKING:@AllentownPolice were filmed Saturday evening applying the same force to a resident that the cops used to murder #GeorgeFloyd.
This happened here in #Allentown outside a hospital.
We demand answers. We demand change.
We're Done Dying.#DefundThePolice pic.twitter.com/AbuyvkMNdT

— Black Lives Matter to Lehigh Valley (@BLMlehighvalley) July 12, 2020

The incident was recorded last Saturday in front of the Sacred Heart Campus at St. Luke’s Hospital.

• Suspect Still At Large In The Shooting Death Of Washington State Police Officer, Another Injured

According to the statement released by local authorities, the police were responding to another call when they saw the man reportedly stumbling in the streets, blocking the driveway to the ER, and vomiting. The man was allegedly spitting and yelling at anyone who tried to talk with him.

“The individual continued to be noncompliant which required officers to restrain the individual and the hospital applied a spit shield. The male in question was escorted into the hospital for treatment. The male was treated and later released," the Allentown Police Department said in a statement.

As outrage against the video grew, Allentown Mayor Ray O’Connell and Police Chief Glenn Grannitz said they’ve launched an investigation and that the public should expect videos of the incident to be released. But the citizens of Allentown are asking for more.

• 9-Year-Old Boy Fatally Shot In New Orleans, Two Teens Wounded

After the video was released, protesters gathered outside of the police station. There are other planned protests in the community.

Nobody in the video has been identified yet.