The police chief said he is investigating the May 31 incident.
Officers in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, are being investigated for their actions during a May 31 protest after body camera images appeared that appear to show them laughing and celebrating after firing rubber bullets at protesters.
The images, first obtained and reported by the Miami Herald, showed members of a SWAT team firing tear gas and then firing non-lethal projectiles at a group of protesters who threw bottles, a tear gas canister and other objects at officers.
After dispersing the crowd, two of the officers are seen on the video laughing after shooting the protesters with rubber bullets and apparently referring to them using various curse words. During the conversation between the two officers, one of them apparently mistakenly believes that his body camera is in standby mode and is not recording.
Fort Lauderdale police released the video after the Herald article was posted online.
Protesters at the May 31 rally following George Floyd’s death have argued that Fort Lauderdale police increased tensions and used unnecessary force. LaToya Ratlieff told reporters last month that she was walking away from the protest when she was shot in the eye with a rubber bullet, a wound that required 20 stitches. Floyd died in police custody in Minnesota on May 25.
“My situation is not unique,” Ratlieff told ABC affiliate WPLG on June 7.
Fort Lauderdale city manager Chris Lagerbloom said in a statement that while he understood the intensity of the situation in the video, “as the officers were clearly under attack,” he was still “concerned” about what he saw. Lagerbloom said he called Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Rick Maglione to investigate the incident.
“The exchange recorded by body cameras paints an unflattering but truthful depiction of the chaos they were operating in. The language the officers used and the sentiment expressed is not consistent with what the public expects of our police force,” said Lagerbloom. it’s a statement.
Maglione said her office is investigating more than 8,000 minutes of body camera images, including the video in question. He defended the officers’ actions in a statement released Wednesday.
“The entire video clearly demonstrates that our officers were under attack by a group of people who chose to use violence instead of peace to antagonize the situation,” he said. “Although the language is extreme and offensive to some, our officers were dealing with the chaos of a developing situation.”
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