A video furiously making its way across the ether shows a police officer beating a woman in the head after she reportedly refused to provide identification while hanging out on a beach in Wildwood, New Jersey.
Emily Weinman, 20, was admittedly in proximity to alcohol on Saturday afternoon. After being found out, and passing a breathalyzer, two members of the Wildwood Police Department followed Weinman as she walked away to make a phone call, she says.
According to Weinman’s own Facebook post, “I had alcohol, it’s Memorial Day weekend and 90 percent of people are underage drinking on the beach, without a doubt. Two cops approach me on a their four-wheelers and ask me and my friend how old we are, we gave them our ages. Then, we got breathalized, and it came back negative. I told them I wasn’t drinking and the alcohol was clearly closed/sealed, which the cops seen.”
Weinman claims she was cooperative up until the point the police asked for her ID. She refused, by some accounts, volubly. Again, her Facebook post, which has apparently since-been deleted:
I asked them don’t they have something better to do as cops than to stop people for underage drinking on the beach, saying to that there’s so much more serious stuff going on…the cop said, ‘I was gonna let you go but now I’ll write you up’ and he asked my name. I did not do anything wrong and anything could’ve been written down on that paper so I wouldn’t give it to him.
Here, accounts differ. The police claim an officer experienced a groin injury, leading police to give chase. Wildwood Mayor Ernie Troiano Jr. says there was saliva involved. Weinman claims she tripped and fell as she backed away from the cops–and that’s when they started attacking her.
In any event, what happened next has shocked and outraged the internet. Witness Alexis Hewitt spoke to CBS Philly, she said, “The next thing we know we hear all this commotion and yelling. I woke up and realized there were officers and everybody running around so I immediately grabbed my phone, it was when I started recording.”
In the video, multiple voices shout, “stop resisting!” Weinman is body-slammed and wrestled to the sand. The fracas continues. At one point, Weinman shrieks, “You’re not allowed to hit me like that!” One officer has Weinman pinned to the ground as she kicks her legs into the air. Another officer repeatedly punches Weinman in the head. Eventually a third officer arrives. A man shouts at the cops, “You fucking pussies!”
The officers involved have been reassigned pending an internal investigation. Weinman faces charges of assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest.
[image via screengrab/Alexis Hewitt]
Follow Colin Kalmbacher on Twitter: @colinkalmbacher