New Orleans Plain Clothes Officers Attack Two Young Men Viciously Without Cause, Walk Away

Updated: Feb 20, 2013 10:56 PM CST

New Orleans, La. - 17-year-old Sidney Newman and 18-year-old Ferdinand Hunt say they were hanging out together in the 700 block of Conti Sunday night after going to a parade.
Hunt's mother, an 8th District NOPD officer, was working nearby.  The young men say Hunt's mother had gone to grab them something to eat.
Surveillance video obtained by FOX 8 shows Hunt leaning up against the building while Newman sat next to him.
"We were just sitting there laughing and out of nowhere, I saw two guys grab Ferd," says Newman.
"All of a sudden, I'm on the wall. A whole bunch of people just came up and threw me up against the wall," says Hunt.
Those people were plain clothes law enforcement officers, nine of them State Troopers and one NOPD officer.  The two young men were taken down to the ground.
"I was scared. I didn't know what was happening. I thought they were trying to rob us," says Hunt.
"At that point another guy came up and grabbed me by my hair and he was on top of me. At the same time, I'm calling, 'Ferd.'  I'm asking Ferd, 'Where's your mother?'" says Newman.
Hunt's mother does approach and the two young men are allowed to get up.  Not long after releasing the two men, the plain clothes officers simply walked away.
"Why take a child or a young man that's 130 pounds and sling him across? Why not just walk up to him and say, 'What are you doing? What's your name or why are you here?' That's a human being" says Sidney's mother, Hazel Newman.  "I would hate to think that it was because these boys were young black boys. I would hate to think that."
State Police say any allegations of racial profiling are absurd.
The troopers were part of the Mardi Gras plain clothes detail. They say they were looking for juvenile violations, illegal weapons and narcotic activity at the time. 

http://www.fox8live.com/story/21192937/police-misconduct-allegations