PHOENIX — Rank-and-file Phoenix police officers are asking the public for patience as fervor over an officer confrontation caught on video incites protests.
“We are asking people just to wait and slow down until this investigation is completed,” said Britt London, President of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association (PLEA) on Wednesday.
London said the national attention over the video is like nothing he’s seen before. He said PLEA’s office and Facebook page are inundated with criticism suggesting Phoenix officers are racist.
“To say this is racist, why is it racist? Just because the officers are white and they (the couple) are black? Is that racist?” London said.
As 12 News has reported, cell phone video of the incident shows two officers yelling profanities and threatening to shoot a couple they pulled over after an alleged shoplifting incident. The scene is loud and chaotic as officers yell orders and the couple involved yell back. The woman was holding a baby in her arms and repeatedly said she could not hold up her hands.
Protestors and even celebrities like music mogul Jay-Z have condemned the officers in the video. London said the inclination of some people to paint a broad brush against the police department is unfair and demoralizing for officers on the street.
“Morale sinks,” London said. “What goes through an officer’s mind is the question of whether anybody is going to give them a fair shake.”
London also pushed back against comments by Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, who issued a statement over the weekend calling the officers’ behavior in the video “completely inappropriate and clearly unprofessional.”
“I am deeply sorry for what this family went through, and I apologize to our community,” Gallego said.
The incident is under internal investigation and the officers have been placed on desk duty.
“I think it was a little premature, a little quick. There is a potential of a $10 million lawsuit here,” London said. “I would like to think she (Gallego) made a mistake and maybe it was a little too early.”
In response to criticism that the officers needlessly threatened to shoot the man and woman, London said it may have had a tactical purpose.
“We are trying to get some people out of a car. We don’t know who is in the car. It has a dark tint. There was no compliance from the get-go in this thing,” London said. “You think these cops just picked them out and said, ‘Hey, here’s this family driving around, let’s give them some grief'?”