The Canarsie takedown

Police Commissioner Dermot Shea calls what he saw “disturbing” and promises an investigation. He got that right. The arrest in Carnarsie of 20year-old Fitzroy Gayle, thankfully captured on video by a bystander, raises many pressing questions, few of them likely to reflect well on the NYPD.

Around 7 p.m. Wednesday, plainclothes officers responding to shots fired near a playground purportedly witnessed two young men lighting a marijuana cigarette. They pursued them.

When one of the officers caught up with Gayle, taken to be one of the young men, the cop kept him pressed against a metal fence and called for backup. When it arrived, a swarm of force applied by a halfdozen cops subdued the young man.

From the beginning of the encounter, Gayle appears to present no threat. His arms are raised at all times. With his back to a metal warehouse door, there’s no place for him to go.

The young man is, however, incredulous that he’s potentially under arrest, repeatedly asking: “What crime did I commit?” Never came an answer.

If the initial officer feared Gayle was armed, he did nothing about those suspicions. As for the overwhelming force that followed when other officers arrived, the video speaks for itself.

Cops ultimately charged Gayle with marijuana possession, resisting arrest and governmental administrative interference.

But marijuana was decriminalized last year. Possession or smoking in public is supposed to result in a ticket. The video makes a resisting arrest claim laughable.

Though no chokeholds were applied and no lives lost, the encounter echoes the chilling killing of Eric Garner. Deliver answers right away.