A Philadelphia police officer is under investigation after video of an incident between him and a Black man surfaced online.
The Philadelphia Police Department announced their investigation via social media on Tuesday. The officer, identified as Robert Hoover, has been placed on administrative leave.
“We understand the video circulating has caused anger and disappointment,” the department said in a tweet. “All PPD officers are expected to discharge their duties with honor and integrity.”
The cellphone video shows the officer following an unidentified pedestrian while shining a flashlight in his eyes. He then begins to mock and insult the man by calling him “boy,” “dog” and “homie.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:
Efforts to reach the man who recorded the video were unsuccessful. It was apparently taken by a man the narrator calls Gabriel, who starts filming Hoover as the officer follows him after he leaves his aunt’s house in the Poplar neighborhood.
The video was first posted on YouTube on Oct. 2 by LackLuster, a channel used to expose police misconduct.
The video begins with Hoover following an unidentified man with a flashlight and cell phone. The man explains to Hoover that he is from the area—the reason why he is there in the first place. Hoover responds: “You don’t live down here. Shut your mouth, boy. You don’t live down here.”
Throughout the video, the man repeatedly tells the officer to leave him alone. Eventually, the man asks that Hoover call a department supervisor or sergeant, which the officer dismisses.
After numerous taunts between the two, Hoover can be heard asking why he’s being followed around, and then orders the man to put his hands behind his back and to stop resisting.
The video concludes with the man being placed under arrest.
The LackLuster narrator says the man was charged with disorderly conduct and possession of a small amount of marijuana.
“The actions of Officer Hoover are unbecoming of an officer and a disgrace to his department,” the narrator says. “Most would agree that they wouldn’t want to be treated this way, and that no public official should be allowed to act in such a disrespectful manner, especially unprovoked.
A large problem that people of color have with their respective police departments is the sometimes unfair treatment by its officers.
This is yet another example.