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Crime

27th Apr 2021

Police officer ‘racially profiles’ Black man at diner in viral video

Danny Jones

Pennsylvania police officer accused of racial profiling

The police officer from Pennsylvania was filmed ‘racially profiling’ a Black customer

A video of a police officer ‘racially profiling’ a Black man has gone viral on social media. The cop was called to a diner in Vandergrift, Pennsylvania, after reports of someone smoking marijuana outside the establishment.

As you can see in the video initially posted to Twitter, the police officer identified as William Moore, approaches the table where the Black man is sitting and is clearly already operating under the assumption that he is the culprit in question.

After being asked for his ID, the victim, Marcus Townsend, continuously questions why, to which Moore simply keeps repeating, “I was called here for you”. He then orders Townsend to go outside and after initially refusing, the officer calls for an additional unit to arrive on the scene.

Townsend ultimately hands over his ID and makes his way outside, but throughout that the scenario suggests “racial profiling”, to which Moore replies sarcastically: “Oh yeah! ‘Cause I just don’t like Black people”.

He goes on to reject the notion that he is racist, saying he doesn’t care what skin colour people are. As he reads out the numbers on his ID, he stumbles and has to start again. Townsend asks if he is drunk, to which he simply replies, “I’m tired of your attitude”.

The incident continues outside of the diner as well, with additional footage showing the additional officer on the scene as well as Moore calling his station to have his criminal history checked and insisting that he doesn’t care that he is being filmed.

As @davenewworld_2/’Fifty Shades of Whey’ goes on to point at the end of his thread, Moore was also charged with assaulting a young teenager in his own home back in 2017.

According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review he was alleged to have grabbed a 14-year-old by the arm, covering his mouth and threatening to have him “committed to a mental institution”. He was also believed to have been drunk at the time of this incident too.

It is worth noting that, so far, there is no evidence to suggest that Townsend was the individual smoking outside of the G&G Restaurant. Furthermore, while Pennsylvania does not allow smoking marijuana recreationally, it is available for medical use and has been decriminalised throughout various cities in the state.

At the start of this month, weed was legalised in New York, becoming the 15th state to do so. It is clear that modern attitudes towards the natural drug are changing across the globe, with Sadiq Khan also looking to review cannabis laws is in his latest electoral campaign.