The mayor of Cambridge has made it a point to let us know that black lives matter after a video of a police officer repeatedly striking a black Harvard University student while he was pinned to the ground by fellow officers makes its rounds across the internet.

According to The Boston Globe, the student in the video has been identified as 21-year-old Selorm Ohene. A seven-minute video shows the encounter that occurred Friday night.

Sunday morning, Cambridge Mayor Marc C. McGovern issued a statement addressing the video which was released later the same day.

“Cambridge affirms that Black Lives Matter, but it must be true in practice as well,” McGovern said.

“What is shown on the video is disturbing,” McGovern continued. “When confrontations cannot be averted and include the use of physical force, we must be willing to review our actions to ensure that our police officers are providing the highest level of safety for all.”

In the video, an officer grabs Ohene’s legs from behind, knocking him forward into another officer. The three men fall to the pavement. The third officer helps pin Ohene to the ground. A fourth officer helps restrain Ohene, and one of the officers can be seen striking Ohene.

The 21-year-old student can be heard yelling, “Help me, Jesus! Help me, Jesus!” as he struggles with the officers.

Ohene was charged with indecent exposure, disorderly conduct, assault, resisting arrest, and assault and battery on ambulance personnel, police said. According to a police report, Ohene was naked, and a woman who appeared to be Ohene’s acquaintance told officers he may have been on drugs. However, the necessity and protocol of punching the young man raises questions.

Police said they told Ohene they were “only there to help him and were concerned for his safety;" however, he became "aggressive, hostile, and intimidating" and approached officers with clenched fists, prompting them to take him to the ground, the report continued.

The arrest reportedly had 30 witnesses, some of whom are members of the Harvard Black Law Students Association. The group has issued a statement calling it "a brutal instance of police violence" and demanded that officers involved "be investigated and held accountable."

“A naked, unarmed Black man stood still on the median at the center of Massachusetts Avenue across from Harvard-Epworth United Methodist Church," the group's statement said. "He was surrounded by at least four Cambridge Police Department (CPD) officers who, without provocation, lunged at him, tackled him and pinned him to the ground. While on the ground, at least one officer repeatedly punched the student in his torso as he screamed for help. The officers held him to the ground until paramedics arrived, placed him on a stretcher, and put him in the ambulance. A pool of blood remained on the pavement as the ambulance departed.”

With two different stories coming from police and witnesses, a spokesman for Cambridge police said in an email Sunday that the department is committed to a “thorough and complete” review.

If Ohene was restrained, why was there a need to strike him? As this case develops, we can only hope that black lives truly do matter to the city of Cambridge, and justice is served.

Black Harvard Students

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