Mayor of Venice interrupts a police stop of a “person of color” after giving a eulogy at the George Floyd vigil is concerned that there may be some form of social injustice occurring
By Francesco Abbruzzino, Publisher, The Scoop
I was contacted today by an individual that was concerned about an incident that took place on Saturday in Venice. The individual communicated to me that a sargent with the Venice Police made a traffic stop on Saturday. The stopped involved an African-American male.
Normally I would think nothing of the stop, outside that it was a typical traffic stop and I thought OK, the VPD made a traffic stop, so what……….. Well it is what the individual communicated to me, regarding an interaction that took place.
Apparently, the Mayor of Venice saw the stop and decided to approach the officer and essentially accuse them of racially profiling the driver. You can see the Mayor on the top right of the screen in a white shirt, where he observed the stop and then later approaches the officers, after the car pulled into an empty lot. This incident took place after the Mayor spoke at a vigil honoring George Floyd, which many viewed as an anti-police event. They put out a communication that the event was cancelled, while rescheduling the event at another location within Venice.
I put in a FOIA request with the VPD for the dash cam video, which is below (Fast forward to the 13:00 minute mark).
Based upon the call log that was sent to me via the FOIA request, which you can view by clicking — >>> here, the driver was stopped for having an expired license plate. During the stop the driver admitted to not having a license. As you will see in the video, the officers were very professional with the individual. I am not sure how the Mayor thinks this equates to racial profiling because as the Mayor states “a person of color” is pulled over.
I am deeply disturbed that the Mayor of Venice decided to involve himself in a traffic stop and note his concern over the police pulling over a person of color. Talk about abuse of his power and a highly unprofessional and irresponsible move. What proof could the Mayor possible had that there was any racial profiling, which is basically what he meant with his comment? Does he assume that whenever a “person of color” is pulled over, that there may be some social injustice taking place? He did not know what took place and what led to the traffic stop. However, he decided to use his position as the Mayor to interfere in the traffic stop, based upon the simple fact that the person the officer pulled over is black. Shameful.
In today’s environment of police relations, was it a good idea to distract the two officers, as the Mayor did? What are your thoughts Venice? Let the lovely Mayor Ronald know by sending him an email at: [email protected]
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Needless to say, my sources tell me that the Venice boys in blue are not happy with the Mayor interrupting the stop, to ensure that a social injustice is not taking place.
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Fast forward to the 13:00 minute mark
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