MIAMI (AP) — A Miami-Dade police officer has been relieved of duty after an incident caught on body cam showed him hitting a woman who was yelling at him at Miami International Airport.
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In the video, which was posted on Twitter by South Florida filmmaker Billy Corbin, shows a Miami-Dade police officer, who was wearing a face mask, speaking to a Black woman inside an airport terminal on Wednesday.
The woman, who was not wearing a face mask, becomes irate, saying, “You acting like you white when you really Black…what you want to do?” She approaches the officer, and puts her face right next to his, the video shows. The officer then punches her in the face.
“She headbutted me,” the officer says as says as other officers rush in to handcuff her.
“I am shocked and angered by a body cam video that i just saw involving one of our officers. I’ve immediately initiated an investigation and ordered that the involved officers be relieved of duty,” Miami-Dade Police Director Alfredo Ramirez said in a series of tweets on Wednesday night. He did not clarify what the action meant.
Ramirez said he has asked Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle to investigate the use of force.
The Miami Herald reported that the woman was loudly complaining about a missed or delayed flight and a ticket agent called police. The officer arrived and began talking to the woman but the confrontation escalated when she began shouting at him, the newspaper report said.
Steadman Stahl, president of the Miami-Dade Police Benevolent Association, told the newspaper the officer hit the woman with an “open-hand slap,” which is also called called a “diversionary strike.”
“Clearly she was the aggressor. She was being asked to leave. She’s being belligerent and she pushes her face right into his face,” Stahl said.
It is the latest incident involving police officers in South Florida since protests over police brutality began across the nation following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May. A Minneapolis officer was later charged with murder after pressing a knee into Floyd’s neck during an arrest.
In Fort Lauderdale, newly released body camera footage shows police officers laughing and celebrating after shooting protesters with rubber bullets during a May protest against police brutality.
Fort Lauderdale police posted a video on its official YouTube channel Wednesday taken from the body camera of Detective Zachary Baro, who was leading the department’s SWAT team unit on May 31.
At one point in the video, Baro can be heard saying, “Beat it” and using a profanity, after officers shot less lethal projectiles.
Last week, ex-Miami Gardens police officer Jordy Martel was charged with battery after putting his knee on the neck of a woman and shooting her twice with a stun gun during an incident in January. And in Fort Lauderdale, Officer Steven Pohorence was charged with battery for shoving a kneeling woman to the ground during a protest.
To put your uncovered mouth in the face of a cop during a pandemic is a dangerous and potentially fatal assault! It’s unclear why certain people think it’s okay to assault a cop and expect no consequences in return. People who don’t respect the police, usually don’t because they don’t respect the law or safety of others.
Are people crazy?! She came up to him! She put him in danger, she invaded his space! If someone would do that to me then I’d slap that person in the face as well.
The US is becoming more and more insane. The world is going crazy, you cannot even defend yourself anymore…
Golda and
Voices
You have a valid point but I can see her also headbutting him. Watch again!
The US is going down the road of S’dom. The logic is warped. Wait till the elections later this year. There will be chaos no matter who wins.
Every religious Jew must register to vote or they are guilty of turning America into sodom.
People tend to go nuts in airports. It is a stressful place for a lot of folks.
What do you expext the police to do by now… a police with a gun is like a toddler with a capgun. They cant do anything or they fear being behind bars. BLM can loot and shoot and they cannot even spray pepperspray. Imagine being a police officer in this backwords world. Very soon we will see how dangerous this world will get rachmana litzlan when all the police will resign
Poor guy! He looks like a nice officer. Too bad for him, that a sick black lady started up with him.
I don’t think any other policeman would have done differently. He didn’t plan that. It was his reflexes kicking in.