WATCH: Police officers captured 'harassing' homeless man in Sydney
A video showing police officers allegedly "harassing a poor homeless man" near Central Station in Sydney has left hundreds of people furious after it was posted to social media.
Keteilia Harris, who filmed the video, claims one of the police officers "punched the homeless man" before the video was taken.
"Just witnessed this police officer harass a poor homeless man while he was 'hanging around' collecting his free dinner that lovely people were providing," Ms Harris wrote on Facebook.
"Before this video the police officer punched him and asked him to move away 500 meters after calling him "a homeless piece of s***" whilst the man was asking the police officer why he's being sent away."
NSW Police told 7 News Online the homeless man was behaving inappropriately.
In the footage an officer can be seen grabbing the homeless man and pushing him up against a fence.
The homeless man then hurls a racial slur at the police officer.
A police officer in the video is heard saying "I'm going to write you a ticket".
"What for?" the homeless man asks.
"For offensive behaviour, offensive language," the police officer replies.
"Where is the offensive behaviour?" the homeless man questions.
"So here's what's going to happen - I have a ticket for offensive behaviour and i'll give you one more chance to move and if not, if not, shut up, shut up for f***'s sake," the police officer says as the man attempts to talk over the top of him.
A NSW Police spokesperson said officers had to talk to the man twice.
"About 7.40pm on Thursday, police officers attached to the police transport command spoke to a 57-year-old man who was allegedly abusing members of the public at Central Railway Station," a police spokesperson said.
"The man was issued a move along direction but a short time later police had reason to speak with the man again. They will allege he was behaving in an offensive manner. The man was escorted from the location and will be issued with an infringement notice in relation to his behaviour."
The spokesperson added that "the incident will be reviewed".
Ms Harris said the homeless man had just received his dinner when police approached him.
She described the incident as "disgusting".
"He was in the middle of eating his provided dinner," she wrote.
"This is the most disgusting thing I've ever witnessed first hand. If anyone recognises this police officer please let me know as I'd like to report this. I see this homeless man a lot when I'm on my way to uni and I always chat with him, he's not a bad guy at all."
The video has received over 1000 comments on Facebook, more than 1200 shares and over 80,000 views.
Comments on the video include "take his badge", "remove both officers from the force", "disgusting behaviour, this is not the typical police officer", and "no wonder cops don't get any respect".
Police say they are investigating the incident.
