The New York Police Department has launched an internal investigation after a video of an officer seemingly making a white power hand signal during a #BlackLivesMatter protest for #GeorgeFloyd emerged online.
The men and women in blue who are supposed to be protecting us have been causing people the most pain during protests this past week over the brutal murder of George Floyd. Despite wearing a badge and claiming to protect and serve, police officers are showing that they want to do the complete opposite and may be a part of the very league of people the protests are fighting against – white supremacy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh549az4qfQ
On Saturday, a video was posted online, and in it, a police officer can be seen flashing a hand gesture that looks exactly like the white supremacy “OK” symbol during a protest in New York. The police officer made the hand signal while in the background of a rapper’s video recording in Union Square. The rapper, China Mac, was recording himself at the time, and another person nearby caught the hand signal during his own recording.
In an Instagram post, Mac wrote, “So there’s a viral clip going around of white officers throwing up the ‘White Power’ sign. I was taking a picture for my YouTube live thumbnail, and the two officers photobombed it, throwing up their signs. What do y’all think about that?” The video shows the officer making the hand signal and then laughing with another policeman next to him. Twitter flagged the video to the police department, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea, Mayor Bill de Blasio, and New York State Attorney General Letitia James, NBC News reports. The NYPD says it knows about the video and that they are looking into it.
