NEWBURGH – An incident involving Newburgh City Police and an individual captured on a bystander’s video, has raised the ire of one city councilman.

Councilman Omari Shakur referred to the weekend incident during Monday night’s remotely held city council session.

“They censured me for verbal incident with a police officer, when we have a video where a man had his hands up and he was tazed and bit by a (police) dog,” he said. “I hope we have the same appall that we had for that verbal confrontation. I hope we have the same appall that we had for that verbal confrontation for this physical confrontation between the officers and somebody in the city. I hope we have the same appall for that incident, too.”

Councilwoman Patti Sofokles had a different outlook on the incident.

“Anybody that knows anything knows that when somebody is really, really high on drugs, they don’t pay attention to what the commands the police are giving them, and that seemed to be pretty clear and I thank the police officers for doing their job,” she said.

Mayor Torrance Harvey, who also saw the video, said it is time to bring everyone together.

“I think that a community forum needs to take place once we get past this COVID-19 pandemic so people can hear from various different law enforcement officers and agencies, even civil rights professionals, who we have come into the City of Newburgh, to educate our community on what are the dos and don’ts when encountering or engaging a police officer,” he said.

This latest incident occurred on Broadway in Newburgh.

