Charges against a Sunset Park fruit vendor whose arrest was caught on video have been dropped.
Police arrested Jonathan Daza in September for assault and resisting arrest after they say he failed to move his fruit stand when a street fair permit expired, but cellphone video showed Officer Vincent Ciardiello kick Daza while he was being taken down.
Daza said he is grateful for the video, which he said proves his innocence and shows people what really happened.
"I was just nervous, scared. I was worried. I thought they were going to do something else," he said. "I really never been through this. It was my first time that that this happened to me."
"The community has been outraged because here, you saw this young man in handcuffs and being tossed around, being kicked," said Dennis Flores of El Grito de Sunset Park. "And these were unprovoked attacks. There was no reason why a police officer had to use that type of excessive force for a person who was already subdued."
Police say Ciardiello has been on modified assignment.