A Florida police chief is defending officers shown on newly released body cam video cursing and laughing after shooting demonstrators with rubber bullets at a George Floyd protest May 31. “Did you see me f--k up those motherf----rs?” one of the officers is shown asking after firing at demonstrators. “I got the one f---er,” the other responded with laughter audible in the video.
To make matters worse, Det. Zachary Baro, who’s in charge of the Fort Lauderdale SWAT team, encouraged officers and even said “beat it, little f---er” when a protester threw back a tear gas canister police lobbed at demonstrators. At one point in the encounter, Baro was seen telling officer Jamie Chatman, who had asked him about it, that his body camera wasn’t recording.
“Thankfully they were WRONG — and now we know how they actually feel about protestors,” civil rights attorney Ben Crump said Thursday on Twitter.
Still, when given the chance to comment by the Miami Herald, Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Rick Maglione only criticized the paper.
“Your story shows less than 3 minutes of an 8 minute and 43 second long video,” the police chief said. “The entire video clearly demonstrates our officers were under attack by a group of people who chose to use violence instead of peace to antagonize the situation. Although the language is extreme, and offensive to some, our officers were dealing with the chaos of a developing situation.“
Even though the footage the Miami Herald obtained seemed to support protesters’ claims that any violence on their part was in response to “police aggression,” Maglione did not respond to the Herald’s questions regarding whether the officers would be disciplined or investigated.
One officer, who the newspaper identified as Steven Pohorence, was shown in another viral video clip pushing a woman in the head as she kneeled, and when protesters threw plastic water bottles in response, police launched tear gas. “Please I am begging you, we’re peaceful,” one protester can be heard screaming.
Poherence was charged with misdemeanor battery, the Herald reported, and within about 15 minutes of his pushing encounter, Baro had fired so many rubber bullets he had to reload his six-chamber launcher, the Herald reported. “If you need it, give me a target,” Baro screamed to other officers.
Robert Drago, a retired lieutenant colonel at the Broward Sheriff’s Office, told the Miami Herald: “If you’re not seeing a threat, why are you asking for a threat? That would almost lead you to believe that they were indiscriminately firing.”
George Kirkham, a former police officer, told the newspaper: "This is serious misconduct." He said he’s been in riot situation and knows what it’s like to have your adrenaline pumping, but that “does not excuse that kind of verbiage and behavior.”
"This is people with badges acting like thugs," Kirkham told the Herald. "It's like a cancer. If you let it go, it will spread."