NYPD Officer Who Berated Uber Driver Placed on Modified Duty

An NYPD officer from Long Island is in hot water following a profanity-laced tirade against an Uber driver in Manhattan on Monday that was caught on video.

Det. Patrick Cherry has been placed on modified duty following the incident, which NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton has called “unacceptable,” according to a CBS2 report.

The NYC Civilian Complaint Review Board is investigating the incident in which Cherry can be heard berating the driver, at one point asking the man, “How long have you been in this country?”

A passenger in the vehicle, Sanjay Seth, filmed the ordeal and posted it to YouTube, where it has already been viewed more than 700,000 times.

The drama started, according to Seth, when Cherry was attempting to park his unmarked car without using his blinker on the West Side Highway at about 2 p.m. Monday.

“The Uber driver pulled around and gestured that he should use his blinker, casually and non-offensively, and kept driving us,” Seth wrote on YouTube. “The policeman quickly pulls up behind us and this is what happens.”

The video begins with Cherry, who will reportedly be transferred out of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, scolding the driver.

“Stop it with your mouth,” the officer says. “Stop it with your ’For what sir, for what sir.’ Stop it with that <expletive>.”

Later in the video, Cherry tells the driver, ”People are allowed to park their cars on the side of the street without your interference and then your opinion about what’s going on. OK, especially when the person you are doing it to are the police.”

After the driver responds to Cherry’s query regarding how long he has been in the country, the officer says, “I got news for you and use this lesson. Remember this in the future. Don’t ever do that again.”

“The only reason you are not in handcuffs going to jail and getting summonses in the precinct is because I have things to do,” Cherry adds. “That’s the only reason that’s not happening. Because this is not important enough for me. You’re not important enough.”

In a Daily News report, a neighbor of Cherry’s in Sayville described him as “always been polite, always waves and he’s a good person.”

Watch the YouTube video below (warning: contains graphic language):