A video of two men violently attacking a New York City cop on a subway platform for asking them to stop smoking inside the station is circulating on social media as frequent assaults continue to plague the city’s public transit system.
Kareem McClary, 23, and Izayiah Jessamy, 20, and a third unidentified man were smoking cigarettes at the Bronx’s Freeman Street subway station Monday afternoon, the Daily Mail reported.
Smoking is prohibited in subway stations, so two police officers who happened to be there asked them to stop and leave, authorities said. This is when McClary and Jessamy started battering one of the officers in a vicious assault that was caught on camera.
One post of the video on X has already garnered 50,000 views.
The attack continued until multiple officers stepped in to help and eventually were able to handcuff two of the men while the third escaped.
Officials reported that the cops suffered minor injuries and were treated at the scene.
McClary and Jessamy were charged with assault on a police officer, resisting arrest, violation of local law and trespass, the Daily Mail reported.
Subway crime has gotten so serious in NYC that progressive Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg even said that he’s afraid for his family when they ride the train.
“I know the statistics that transit crime is down, but when one of my family members gets on the train, I, too, get a knot in my stomach,” Bragg told FOX 5 News last month.