Marc Merritt was in Baldwin, helping a friend bump-start a stalled bike outside the now-shuttered Appleton Estate lounge, when Nassau police officers demanded identification, he said. Merritt, who is Black, declined, saying he had done nothing wrong. Body camera footage obtained by Newsday shows officers herding him onto the sidewalk and against a building, yelling for his ID. When Merritt finally reached into his pocket for his driver’s license, an officer fired his Taser. He collapsed to the ground, yelling in pain. What happened to Merritt is not an outlier. Five years after New York ordered every police department to rethink how and against whom officers use force, police across the state are using more force — and against Black residents at sharply disproportionate rates — according to a Newsday analysis of more than 30,000 incidents. Read more on the use of force against Black people on Long Island at the link in bio. - - #longisland #baldwinny #useofforce #policeforce #reels...