Four vacationing Swedish police officers helped out after two homeless men began fighting on a New York City subway – and showed it’s possible to subdue violent suspects without hurting them.
The officers — Samuel Kvarzell, Markus Asberg, Eric Jansberger and Erik Naslund — were riding an uptown No. 6 train Wednesday on their way to see “Les Miserables” when they responded to the subway driver’s call for help, reported the New York Post.
The video shows one of the brawlers sitting calmly on the floor, flanked by two of the Swedish police officers, while two others kneel on the other man – who is more unruly – to hold him face-down on the floor.
“How do you feel?” one of the officers asks the seated man, who says he feels fine.
The other man struggles, but the pair of officers calmly keep him pinned to the floor.
“I can’t breathe,” he screams, as he rises occasionally from the floor but is unable to escape.
“Take it easy,” one officer repeatedly tells him.
“Sir, calm down, OK? Everything is going to be OK.”
The man eventually calms down, and he admits to the officers that he’s not injured after they ask.
When this video got around on social media it immediately earned the hashtag #swedishcops on Twitter as people began comparing their actions to what Americans have seen from their own police lately.
Police in the US should be trained by these cops.
#swedishcops https://t.co/i1Fw5gFOP0
— Heather Matarazzo (@HeatherMatarazz) April 24, 2015
Yes you can break up a fight without using guns and racial slurs. #swedishcops
— Bano Yousif (@BanoAbdulla) April 24, 2015
Those #swedishcops asked the men they detained if they're alright, if they're injured. Simple questions that show how humanity works. #NYC
— Kay Eves (@KayEves) April 24, 2015
Treating suspects like human beings? How un-American.
