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Some of these cops are out here telling on themselves. And since we’re finally at a time when police officers are under a microscope for doing what have been common police practices since hallelujah, they’re actually being investigated for alleged misconduct.

A Miami-Dade police officer has been reassigned to desk duty pending an investigation into an incident in which he told a Black motorist he pulled over for a seatbelt violation, “This is how you guys get killed out here, man.”

Video footage of the incident published by the Miami Herald indicates that the officer said this to the Black man, identified as Gerardson Nicolas, after Nicolas questioned him about the stop instead of immediately handing over his license and registration on command.

From the Herald:

The exchange between Nicolas and the officer took place near the corner of Northeast 159th Street and 18th Avenue, just before 9 a.m. Wednesday and as Nicolas was on his way to work. The officer asks Nicolas for his license, registration and insurance and says if he doesn’t offer it up, “you will not be going to work.”

When Nicolas doesn’t immediately offer up the documents, the officer makes the racially charged statement. Nicolas, whom the Miami Herald couldn’t reach Monday night, told NBC 6 he began recording the encounter when the officer grabbed his car’s door handle.

I mean, I don’t knowbut it really sounds like the officer was implying that Black people are getting killed by police for simply questioning why we’re being stopped instead of immediately complying with police demands and that killings, under those circumstances, are our faults and not theirs. It’s hard to imagine the cop would’ve said this to a whiter motorist who gave them the same meager resistance that Nicolas did. So, the question for this officer is simple: Who TF is “you guys?”

“It’s exactly what the inference is that bothers me,” said Interim Miami-Dade Police Director George Perez, who ordered the investigation, according to the Herald.

But Steadman Stahl, president of the South Florida Police Benevolent Association, had a different take. Stahl said he wants to see more video footage before he’s willing to believe the officer said anything wrong or racist. Of course, Stahl curiously did not need to see any additional footage to speculate that the officer was talking about the danger of not wearing seatbelts when he said, “This is how you guys get killed out here.”

“People die from not wearing seat belts every day,” Stahl said.

I guess we’re just supposed to ignore the fact that, in the video, Nicolas and the officer don’t appear to be talking about the seatbelt at the time the officer said what he said. Instead, they appear to be arguing over Nicolas not immediately doing what he was told. And, of course, it doesn’t matter that Nicolas—who was actually there for the conversation—also took the cop’s remark to mean Black people are getting killed just for questioning the cops that stop us. 

If the officer’s comment was just about seatbelts, then “you guys” must refer to literally anyone who drives.

Meh—Black folks ain’t buying that.

SEE ALSO:

Voter Intimidation: Photo Shows Uniformed Cop Wearing Pro-Trump Mask At Miami Polling Place

Black Women Slammed And Choked By Miami Officers During Spring Break

Video Shows Miami Cop Tell Black Driver During Traffic Stop: ‘This Is How You Guys Get Killed’  was originally published on newsone.com