Six British army rugby players were tossed back into jail last night after being charged in Manhattan with assault and robbery for their alleged scuffle with an off-duty NYPD cop and his pal outside a Murray Hill sports bar.
“We don’t care,” the players allegedly responded when Officer Arif Tasoren identified himself as a cop during the attack, according to prosecutors.
“F–k the police!” the rugby rowdies allegedly roared.
“They set upon him and began punching him,” prosecutor Emily Logue told a Manhattan Criminal Court judge last night.
“At this point the victim pulled out a folding pocket knife” to ward off his attackers, she said.
Still, Tasoren suffered the most serious injuries in the confrontation, including a fractured nose, a swollen jaw, and cuts to the inside of his mouth that required stitches, according to the criminal complaint.
The players, all of Fijian origin, are contending that the whole affair was instigated by the cop, who they allegd called one of them a “black bastard.”
“They claim they did so [brawled] after he made a racist remark,” said defense lawyer Robert Fisher.
The highest bail — $10,000 — was set for player Ratu-Iosefo Yavala, 33, a lance corporal accused of stealing the cop’s cellphone during the incident.