New Footage Contradicts NYPD Story On Clash Between Migrants And Officers

New footage of a confrontation last month between New York Police Department officers and a group of migrants in Times Square appears to contradict the story that law enforcement and conservative news outlets have been hammering for days.

Outlets like the New York Post and Fox News have reported that several men — “asylum-seeking thugs” and “punks,” in New York Post parlance — picked a fight with a pair of NYPD officers in midtown Manhattan, sharing video stills as apparent proof.

The officers had been telling the migrants to move along because they were blocking the sidewalk for pedestrians.

Footage released after a press conference Thursday, however, shows that the sidewalk was not blocked and pedestrians were able to walk by.

Law enforcement said that a man in a yellow jacket became verbally aggressive and did not comply with the officers’ request, and the fight devolved from there.

But the video footage appears to show the man in the yellow jacket, who was pushing a baby stroller, start moving away before being confronted by one of the NYPD officers. The man, later identified as Yohenry Brito, is grabbed by the arm and shoved against a wall.

The local news blog Hell Gate was first to report on the discrepancies.

Body-camera footage leading up to the fight shows a group of men singing along to a song in Spanish as they move. Brito can be heard saying that one of the officers looked like “Ugly Betty,” the TV character played by America Ferrera, according to Hell Gate.

At Thursday’s press conference, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny summarized the start of the incident by saying that “a large group of these males, Mr. Brito included, are standing in front of the shelter and they’re blocking 42nd Street, forcing