Community outrage over video of ‘officer on man’s neck’ comes to Binghamton City Hall

BINGHAMTON (WBNG) -- Binghamton City Council held a public meeting Wednesday evening to engage with the community over a video that surfaced on social media showing a Binghamton Police Officer kneeling on a man’s neck in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day.

Tensions were high as members of the community spoke one by one about several different topics such as discrimination, police brutality and police reform.

Since the incident on New Year’s Day, outrage for accountability has only grown. On Jan. 2, Hamail Waddell, filed a complaint with the Binghamton Police Department. The community and his family gathered outside of city hall as he filed the complaint on that day.

But on Wednesday, the community gathered again.

“There is bodycam video, he gets paid by taxpayers and the fact that he won’t make some kind of statement condemning it in any sense is why we are all here,” a woman at the meeting told 12 News. “We want some kind of accountability.”

As the meeting continued, the board was met with further adversity from the crowd.

The Binghamton Police Department said the officer who was the subject of Waddell’s complaint has been assigned to desk duty while the matter is under investigation.

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