JERSEY CITY, N.J., June 19 (UPI) -- The mayor of Jersey City, N.J., says he was trying to calm a drunken man in the parking lot of a Jersey Shore bar when police arrived and roughed him up.
Jerramiah Healy told the Jersey Journal that he had just warned the man that police in Bradley Beach "don't play around." When police arrived, they allegedly sprayed the mayor with Mace and forced him to the ground even though he obligingly put his hands behind his back, Healy contended.
Healy and his wife Maureen had been at Barry's Tavern at a party to celebrate his niece's graduation from the state police academy.
Herbert Cutolo, a witness at the scene, said that when Maureen Healy told the officers that her husband is mayor of Jersey City they threatened to put her in handcuffs too, the newspaper said.
Healy said that he got involved because he was trying to convince a drunk to let his female companion drive him home and that his troubles with the officers began when he tried to explain to them that the woman had done nothing wrong.
The mayor told The New York Times that he plans to file a criminal complaint.
