A California police officer is on leave and under internal investigation after multiple viral videos showed his frivolous behaviour toward demonstrators last week in the wake of George Floyd's death, local officials said.
San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo called the videos "disturbing" during a news briefing on Sunday, and Police Chief Eddie Garcia said the officer, Jared Yuen, would "be accountable for his actions and will have to deal with the consequences."
One video shows Yuen grinning into a demonstrator's camera while swaying side-to-side. A protester in the background responds by saying: "This is funny to them. They have smiles on their faces."
A second video shows Yuen telling a demonstrator to "shut up, bitch" just moments before firing his projectile launcher at protesters. Another video shows him saying, "Let's get this (expletive)."
Many on Twitter critiqued the officer's actions. One user who shared the video said, "This is evidence that the police are the aggressors in these protests." Another user urged the police department to "please pay closely attention to videos like this."
Raj Jayadev, director of the social justice group Silicon Valley De-Bug, told The Mercury News of San Jose that the officer's actions were troubling.
"Officer Yuen's actions are extremely dangerous because you have someone who actually has a license to kill," Jayadev said. "It's one thing for someone to be a bully. But when you have the tools and state authority to act upon that violent aggression, it's not just words, as far as I see it. It's a criminal threat."
This isn't the first time that videos on social media have shown police officers lashing out at demonstrators in the aftermath of Floyd's death in police custody in Minneapolis.
In Atlanta, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms fired two officers for pulling two college students out of a car, tasing the man and zip-tie handcuffing the woman. On Tuesday, a prosecutor announced that six officers have been charged.
On Monday, officers and soldiers in Kentucky "returned fire" after someone shot at them, killing Louisville business owner David McAtee. Mayor Greg Fischer fired the police chief shortly after learning that the officers did not have their body cameras turned on.
USA Today