VIDEO: Providence House Party Turns Into Melee, Accusation of Police Abuse

VIDEO: Providence House Party Turns Into Melee, Accusation of Police Abuse

Video provided to GoLocal by Jorge Ventura shows what he says was Providence Police responding to a house party in the city early on Saturday morning.

Ventura says that during the incident, he was assaulted by Providence Police.

GoLocal has reached out to Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez. He did not respond to requests for comment.

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UPDATED: Providence Mayor Brett Smiley’s spokesman, Josh Estrella, said, "Following multiple noise complaint calls, Providence police officers responded to Friendship Street at approximately 1 AM Saturday. Officers on the scene attempted to disperse the crowd while many individuals at the location acted in a disorderly manner and obstructed officers conducting their duty. Four individuals were arrested."

Ventura said, “On July 4th at around 1:30 AM me and others were victims of police brutality by the Providence Police Department. A couple of hours before the cops violated me and my girlfriend’s rights and what felt like our humanity, they came and told the homeowner that the party had to be over by 1:00 AM/1:30 AM, and we were very understanding and agreed to the time they gave us.”

“The speaker had cut off by itself at around 12:50 - 12:55 AM, so everyone in the party was already getting ready to leave. Then, the cops showed up around 1:15 AM, and then everyone started to leave. After the cops cleared out the party, there were about 10 of us left there, and it was only family and immediate friends. The homeowner told the cops that we were just going to chill for the rest of the night, and the cops were still trying to make all of us leave,” added Ventura.

“At this point, the homeowner told me and everyone else to go inside because we were already going to spend the rest of the night in the house after the party was over as a small group. While we were walking to the back door to go inside the cops start following us onto the private property all the way to the back door. While we were going inside, a group of officers swarmed one of the family members from the house and put him in handcuffs for no reason. And that’s when we all pull out our phones and start recording and as you can see in the video the cop is yelling at us to go inside the house and while I’m walking up the stairs he pushed me in my back making me stumble so then I turned around and he pushes me again in my chest to what felt like he used a closed fist to do so. After the second push, that’s when all the officers start moving forward,” added Ventura.

“The door closes and the female sergeant officer forces her way illegally into the house with no warrant and tells us to ‘back up.’ Then the [police] grabbed me and my girlfriend and threw us outside as shown in the video. You can see the black officer pick me up and throw me to the floor again, and five more officers, including a white shirt, jumped on top of me. The black officer on the left side begins punching me in my ribs twice while another white officer on the right side of his supervisor begins punching me in my back repeatedly 5+ times, and the white shirt is putting his knee into my neck and head, forcing my face into the rocks," he said. 

“The white shirt then gets up and the officer that punched me repeatedly begins to mush my face into the rocks, making some dirt even get into my mouth. While this is all happening I can hear my girlfriend screaming to the cops saying they’re hurting her arm and I hear an officer say he’ll break it if he wants too, they then pick me up and I have blood dripping from my knee nobody is asking if I need first aid or EMS nothing. While I’m being walked to a police cruiser by a female officer a white officers grabs me and throws me into the cop car and tells me ‘shut the fuck up’ and slams the door on my face. For me to get to the station and be charged with resisting and a misdemeanor?"

I never felt so discriminated and violated and powerless in my life to be punched, kneed etc...and all I tried to do was stay out of trouble. I played sports all my life, I’m now in the trade, my girlfriend is an ex-athlete, now a full-time college student, we had no criminal record or any record of being violent to be treated like we were committing a crime… do better, Providence Police Department,” adds Ventura.

Editor's Note: GoLocal does not know what preceded the video.