Cell phone video of a traffic stop in Boynton Beach is at the center of a dispute between the Boynton Beach Police Department and the people in the video.
The cell phone video shows a Boynton Beach Police officer appearing to ask for a driver’s identification during a traffic stop. According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the car was stopped as officers were responding to a home-invasion robbery nearby.
Warning: Video Contains Graphic Language
The driver and officers exchanged words and the police then ask for the driver to get out of the car. When the driver doesn’t follow the orders, he is pulled out of the car and taken to the ground by police.
That’s when lawyer Ken Lemoine said another officer drew his gun, “and says something to the effect of, ‘I’ll put a round in your butt so quick.’”
Lemoine is representing the man in the video who was arrested. The video has gone viral and racked up tens of thousands of views, even though it was filmed in February 2013. Lemoine spoke to West Palm Beach NBC affiliate WPTV sand said no one in the car has filed a formal complaint about the officers’ actions because the man “was scared.”
Boynton Beach Police Chief Jeffrey Katz said there’s no “gotcha moment” and that the video should not be used to push racial tensions. Lemoine said the timing, just weeks after the riots in Ferguson, Missouri, was coincidental. Lemoine said he had pushed for his client to go public for some time.
Private investigator Reggie Montgomery told WPTV that the clip’s popularity, just after the riots was questionable and that’s it difficult to tell if anything nefarious is going on in the cell phone video.
“There’s no way you can look at this and determine what’s going on here,” Montgomery told WPTV.
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Chief Katz said the men were not charged with any crimes and that after an internal investigation, the actions of his officers appeared to be appropriate for the circumstance.
