Ex-NYPD detective under fire for ‘devil’s advocate’ defence of Arkansas police filmed brutally beating man

Police were hunting the man after he allegedly threatened a gas station attendent

A retired NYPD detective has come under fire for appearing to defend Arkansas police officers who were filmed violently slamming a man’s head onto pavement.

The video, which went viral after its posting on Sunday, shows an officer from the Mulberry Police Department and two deputies from the Crawford County Sheriff's Office pinning a man to the ground, punching and kneeing him repeatedly, and slamming his head into the concrete.

All of the law enforcement personnel involved have since been suspended pending an investigation.

On CNN, anchors Poppy Harlow and Jim Sciutto were discussing the images of the officers beating the man and asked a correspondent, retired NYPD detective Tom Verni, about the incident.

"Was that necessary? Is that ever necessary?" Ms Harlow asked.

Mr Verni said "based on the video clip, it seems as if the amount of force that was being used may have been excessive," he replied, noting that police are trained in the "use of force" and to assess what levels of force are necessary in a given situation.

The retired detective then decided to play "devil's advocate" and point out that the man being beaten, Randal Worcester, was "not complying."

He noted that Mr Worcester was "moving around" and "not allowing them to place handcuffs on him."

"So playing devil’s advocate, when someone is resisting arrest, and they are refusing to comply with the police, what happens is that escalates that situation to where now police have to amp up their level of force from verbal commands to some level or varying levels of physical force, or other levels," he said.

Mr Sciutto challenged that read, saying he had watched the video numerous times and noticed that "some of what I see the suspect doing is to cover his head."

He pointed out that the police punched the man in the head multiple times and then banged his head on the pavement.

"Is that tactic taught — right there — is that tactic taught in any police training to subdue a suspect?" he asked the retired detective.

“That specific tactic of banging someone’s head in the ground? No,” Mr Verni replied.

He did go on to note though that if you're "in a fight for your life, you use whatever force is necessary" to survive as close to unharmed as possible.

Despite the tepid defense, Mr Verni did ultimately conclude that the “force that they are using is somewhat excessive”, and called the video “disturbing”.