Lincroft, NJ – Brookdale Community College police are under fire after a video went viral showing the arrest of a nursing student.
Brookdale community college arrest
Jeffrey Michel, 27, is seen in the video being taken into custody by Brookdale police. He was charged with harassment, obstruction, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, according to the college.
Throughout the video, six officers are seen trying to arrest Michel, at one point using pepper spray on him.
During the incident, you can hear Michel repeatedly asking the officers why he was being arrested, none of them had an answer. Then finally an officer says obstruction.
“Obstruction for what”, Michel exclaimed.
The officer responds: “You don’t want to provide us with ID or your name and you have to.”
Watch Video
The video, which was posted by Facebook user Vincent Cordero, has been seen more than 600,000 times on Facebook and more than 19,000 times on YouTube.
In the description, the person who posted the video said that Michel is studying nursing at Brookdale to provide for his 2-year-old daughter.
The posting said that Michel was harassed and unlawfully arrested.
“Please share this video to open as many eyes as you can and to help protect the rights our forefathers fought so vigorously to attain. Just because you have a badge and a gun it does not give you the right to harass innocent citizens in the ‘land of the FREE’,” the description said.
Many experts are saying the officers were justified in their arrest.
In an interview with the APP.com, Michel said :
“I thought they were trying to shut me up so they could do whatever they wanted me to do.”
Michel said officers wanted to question him about an incident the week prior, when a friend had called police after Michel had confronted him about his missing laptop charger. Michel and the friend had since resolved the issue, but the friend had not yet contacted police before officers approached Michel.
Michel said he did not want to answer officers questions. He said he did give the officers his name, but did not have identification because he did not drive there, but had been dropped off at school.
Michel said he offered to walk with the officer to the school’s administration building in an effort to prove his identity as well as to call his friend to prove the issue over the laptop charger had been resolved. Michel claims the officer got upset and told Michel not to interfere with his investigation.
The Monmouth County’s Prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into the incident.
What are you thoughts? Were the police officers justified?
