Footage displaying the disturbing attack of a Black man at the hands of a white officer has been released to the Providence Police Department, The Providence Journal reported. The video — which shows Sgt. Joseph Hanley’s use of excessive force against Rishod Gore during an April arrest — was broadcasted during a police civilian oversight panel in Providence, Rhode Island.
On April 19, while responding to calls of a domestic incident in the Federal Hill neighborhood, officers noticed Gore sitting in the passenger seat of his car. Based on footage from both a witness and an officer’s body camera, they approached him and proceeded to yank him out of the car as a woman in the vehicle screamed in the background.
“Why are you pulling me like that?” Gore asked before an officer ordered him to “get out of the fucking car!”
Hanley then pinned him to the ground, handcuffed him and struck him a few times. The state attorney general’s office said the cop also kicked Gore in the ribs, punched him and bounced up and down on his head with his knee.
When Gore inquired about the reason for his arrest, another officer seemed to suggest it was because he acted like an “asshole.” “You act like an asshole from a block away, and then all of a sudden you don’t want to act like an asshole,” the officer said.
Though cops did not provide a clear explanation for the arrest, Gore initially faced charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, but they were later dropped. He also received a $50,000 settlement to prevent him from taking legal action against the city of Providence. Per his lawyer Georgi Vogel-Rosen, he is now “eager to put this horrific incident behind him.”
As for Hanley, he pleaded not guilty to a charge of misdemeanor assault.
The city and state have decided against making the video public.