A grass-roots Brooklyn group has armed itself with video equipment to catch bad cops on camera.
El Grito of Sunset Park has already recorded several incidents of alleged police brutality, including a man being kicked by a cop and a pregnant woman being attacked, said founder Dennis Flores.
Dennis Flores founding member of El GritoRobert MeceaHe and his members, all of whom claim to have been victimized by police, are telling residents of their right to record cops.
“Our thing is not so much that we want to catch police doing something wrong but that we want to prevent police brutality,” Flores said.
“Power absolutely corrupts.”
He said he used money he got from a police-brutality suit to buy El Grito’s digital cameras and high-definition video gear.
Flores said he got more than $250,000 from the city after a 2002 run-in in which, he says, he was physically abused while trying to stop cops from harassing a kid.
Last month, a member of El Grito filmed a cop allegedly kicking a man on the ground at the Fifth Avenue Festival. The cop has been suspended.
El Grito — Spanish for “the cry” — has also released video of cops allegedly throwing a pregnant woman to the ground Sept. 20.
