A viral video in Miami, Florida, shows George Floyd protesters attacking a police car with the officers still inside, while another person at the scene shouts, “f**k you!”
The actor Antonio Sabáto Jr. shared the video on Twitter and opined, “Miami PD are awesome & please arrest the guy screaming holding the camera and throw him in the slammer first!! These protesters are idiots..”
A user called Latina on Fire posted the video to Twitter, writing, “Bayside Miami last night.” The page explained, “This was posted in our Deploreables in the Open Group Tonight! REAL VIDEO! OMG What they are doing to our Police Officers is a Disgrace! BLUE LIVES MATTER! DEAR LORD!”
Here’s the video:
Others took the contrary view, with Twitter user Grant Stern writing, “The Miami PD’s childish behavior and abuse of #BlackLivesMatter protesters is on full display here. Last week, @MiamiMayor Francis Suarez tweeted our city’s (federally monitored) police were ‘with the protesters.’ This is how @MiamiPD incited a civil disturbance & street brawl.” However, Ian Miles Cheong, the editor of Human Events, wrote, “Protesters in Miami lose their minds and attack police en masse.” Others praised police for getting control of the crowd. “Folks, this is how you Police in this type of situation, ” wrote one man on Twitter.
The Miami Herald ran this video from a different vantage point, explaining, “Protests in South Florida against police brutality continued Wednesday, June 10, 2020, when demonstrators vandalized a Christopher Columbus statue in downtown Miami.”
Here’s what you need to know:
Video Shows People Hitting a Police Car & Then Brawling With Officers
Don’t smash a police car in Miami.
The first video has had 1.7 million views at the time of writing. It shows an unmarked police squad rolling slowly through the streets, which are filled with people. There are a number of other police cars in the area with sirens and lights blaring.
People jump on the officers’ car before they hit it with various items. Uniformed officers jump out of the car and start wrestling people to the ground. “Look at the cop,” someone shouts. People begin fighting with the officers and hitting them as officers circle around and try to disperse the crowd. “F**k you, get off him, get off him,” someone shouts. “Get your knee off him.”
The tense scene goes on for some time, as officers urge the crowd to get back. The officers’ T-shirts mark them as Miami police. “What’s your name? what’s your name?” shouts the person making the video.
Heavy has reached out to Miami police for comment. ABC News reported that, on the same day, “one man was charged with smashing a patrol car with his skateboard and trying to incite a riot” in Miami. According to ABC, “one man encouraged other protesters to attack a patrol car and he smashed the vehicle’s windshield with his skateboard, shattering glass on officers inside,” police say.
ABC reported that the protesters were originally there to “honor the death of an 18-year-old man, Israel ‘Reefa’ Hernandez, who died after police used a stun gun on him in 2013.”
Other Videos Have Gone Viral During the Unrest
A series of other intense videos emerged from cities throughout the country as George Floyd protests and riots escalated into violence in some areas. For example, in Chicago, there was an all-out street brawl between police officers and protesters, according to this video. In Atlanta, a video caught a bicycle officer shoving a bike at a woman. Protesters threw an American flag in a river outside Trump Tower in Chicago. In New York City, videos captured two NYPD squad cars ramming into protesters.
Here’s a round-up of some of the most intense videos.
READ NEXT: What’s Known About George Floyd’s Cause of Death.