Video shows local political candidate’s arrest at Miami-Dade restaurant

SUNNY ISLES BEACH, Fla. – Witnesses reported a local political candidate slapped one teenager and choked another in public at a restaurant Sunday in Miami-Dade County.

George Bardmesser, a Russian-American attorney who is campaigning for Sunny Isles Beach commissioner, was arrested after the alleged attack at his neighborhood Cuban restaurant.

Sunny Isles Beach police officers responded to El Tropico Cuban Cuisine, at 17020 Collins Ave., and handcuffed Bardness, 59, who wore a shirt promoting his campaign.

“There was a couple of kids sitting and I don’t know whether they were instigating, said something, generated this gentleman to get up. He put a chokehold on one of the kids and slapped another one,” said Pedro Vera, the owner of the restaurant. “He got out of hand. He lost control. It should have never happened.”