MANHATTAN — Actress Ellen Barkin rang in the New Year with a Twitter rant against the NYPD, accusing police of "violent" behavior and claiming that a cop shoved her to the ground, the New York Post reported.
Barkin, 57, was reportedly walking home from New Year's Eve event at Joe's Pub when she tweeted that police at West 13th Street and Sixth Avenue had thrown a young woman into a police van for no apparent reason. Earlier in the evening police had arrested dozens of Occupy Wall Street protesters.
"[P]olice making random arrests of non protesters," wrote Barkin on Twitter. "Young girl in police van screaming 'I'm just trying 2 get home.'"
The NYPD declined to comment on Barkin's tirade, the Post reported.
Minutes later Barkin herself allegedly had a close encounter with one of New York's finest.
"Just threatened on my street by NYPD, cop shoved me, both hands, onto sidewalk..Is it a crime 2 stand in the street in NY? WTF is going on here?," wrote Barkin.
Barkin, whose last major movie was "Ocean's 13" in 2007, has earned notoriety lately for her profane Twitter account. She then unleashed a verbal assault against the NYPD that read in part, "I cannot believe what I am seeing. U protect nothing. U ARE the violence in my city."
Barkin, who describes herself as a "Bronx girl" on her Twitter account, described the incident as "chilling," adding, "Where r we headed?"
Some Twitter users then chimed in with their own criticisms of police, while others attacked Barkin. One tweeted at Barkin, "ur drunk. Go home and go to bed. 60 year old grandmas plus booze plus twitter equals this f----- sh--t."
Barkin's boyfriend, Sam Levinson, son of director Barry Levinson, tweeted a video of Barkin's encounter with police, but it was removed from websites that posted it.
