Clifton Cop/Kid Kerfuffle – Excessive Force or Justified [VIDEO]

They don’t teach this in school.

Never get in the way of a cop when he or she has to do his or her job.

Eyewitness News identified the 15 year old as Alex Cruz who found out the hard way.

Cruz reportedly
was trying to break up a fight between his girlfriend and another girl when patrol officers happened upon a large group beneath the trestle while transporting a prisoner.

When they hit the sirens in an attempt to disperse the crowd, the girls started fighting, according to Detective Sgt. Robert Bracken.

According to Channel 7,

Cruz says he says he was just trying to break up a fight between his girlfriend and another girl when the officers showed up.

"He said I hit him before everything happened and I didn't," adds Cruz.

Clifton police have seen the video and are investigating but so far standing by the officer's use of force.

Here’s the actual video of the event:

According to one Youtube commenter: These 2 girls got into a fist fight then one of the girls (which was the teen aged boy's girlfriend) was getting arrested when the 15 years old boy tried to comfort his girlfriend the cop pushed him then he back up and then the cop just suddenly started to hit the boy but the boy didn’t even fight back and even my sister's friends were there and they saw no fighting from the boy so it’s the boy you should feel sorry from and I think the police did use excessive force!!!!

Riveting!

But again, since we don’t see the entire incident from start to finish, all we can do is judge by what we do see.

We see a cop try to quell a situation, then a “child” (according to the hysterical woman in the video) jumps in to intervene, and when he does, the cop pushes his away and tells him to “move away”…which he doesn’t.

The cop has a split second to get control of the situation.

Hence the slap to the kid, and the subsequent fracas with the uniformed and the plain clothes officer.

A preliminary review of the incident suggests the officer acted appropriately and within the law to protect himself and the well-being of those around him, police spokesman Detective Sgt. Robert Bracken said Friday. The officer would have been entitled to use baton strikes or pepper spray to subdue the teen, he said.

Even though Alex says he did nothing wrong, he would do something different next time.

"I could have let them do what whatever," he adds.

No one involved says the officer didn't hit Alex, the question is, was he justified in doing so.

Alex will face his charges in juvenile court. The Internal Affairs investigation continues, but the officer remains on active duty.

Police are withholding the names of the officers pending an internal review, which is required under police protocol.