Felix Rivera-Pitre, HIV+ OWS Protester Punched By NYPD, Suggests Police Get Tested
from Huffington Post, October 14, 2011
Tales of police brutality coming out of the Occupy Wall Street protests have become routine since activists took over Lower Manhattan in September.
Earlier this month two women were hit with pepper spray for no apparent reason and a trans protestor claimed he was subjected to unfair treatment when he was arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge.
Now Gothamist.com is reporting an HIV positive protestor received an unprovoked punch from a police man.
In the accompanying video, above, Felix Rivera-Pitre is seen walking when a member of the NYPD suddenly attacks him. The crowd instantly goes wild and Rivera-Pitre says that he was pulled to safety by those around him:
“The cops were pulling me by my feet and the crowd was pulling me by my hands, and I was suspended in the air. But there were more people than cops, and they pulled me out.”
But it wasn’t before Rivera-Pitre’s earring was torn from his ear, covering him in blood. “I remember seeing my earring on the ground next to me and it was full of blood. I was completely dumbstruck. I’m HIV positive and that cop should get tested,” he says.
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