Brooklyn vendor given cheap-shot kick by cop says NYPD needs ‘to take care of us better’

The Brooklyn fruit vendor who was kicked in the back by a cop after he had been subdued and handcuffed by other officers said he can’t stop thinking about the jarring assault and the officer’s cheap shot.

“I couldn’t stop watching the video. I was traumatized,” Jonathan Daza said Thursday at his Sunset Park home, holding back tears as his 7-month-old son, Jonathan Jr., bounced on his shoulder.

“I watched it over and over, and I honestly can’t believe that I’m still here ... that I’m still alive.”

The 22-year-old and his family were selling fruit at a street fair on Fifth Ave. in Sunset Park on Sunday. When the fair was set to close, cops began to open the street and told them to clear out along with other vendors.

Daza and his family were packing up, he said, when a group of officers came up to them and started asking for their identification.

As one of the cops grilled Daza’s 17-year-old sister, the vendor said he told her not to answer their questions. The police quickly turned their attention to the vendor.

“The officer starts yelling at me, asking me who I am, and I told him: ‘I’m her brother,’” Daza recalled. “That’s when the officer grabbed me, with force; he pulled me to the side and then he called for more officers, and then that’s when they started hitting me.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/brooklyn-vendor-reacts-nypd-cheap-shot-article-1.1944813