Footage shows group of Trump supporters - including a New Jersey corrections officer and FedEx employee - taunt protesters by reenacting George Floyd's death as they passed by - sparking town mayor to call it 'revolting'
A group of white counter-protesters has sparked outrage by taunting a Black Lives Matter protest with a sign reading 'All Lives Matter' as they appeared to reenact the death of George Floyd.
The incident, which resulted in the suspension of a corrections officer and the firing of a FedEx employee who participated, occurred on Monday in Franklinville, New Jersey, an unincorporated community in the southern part of the state.
In video of the encounter, which was shared widely on social media, protesters march along a street chanting 'George Floyd!' and 'Black Lives Matter!' The video shows they are being escorted by local police.
They pass a private property filled with firewood for sale. Video filmed by someone marching shows a man kneeling on the neck of another man shouting back at protesters. Protesters shout back.
Video filmed by someone marching shows a man kneeling on the neck of another man shouting at protesters
The incident, which resulted in the suspension of a corrections officer and the firing of a FedEx employee who participated, occurred on Monday in Franklinville, New Jersey
Two more men are standing nearby and one of them is filming on a cellphone. The group is standing on the roadside in front of a pickup truck outfitted with an American flag and a Trump banner. Several others are nearby. An 'All Lives Matter' sign is also hanging.
Another truck shows the 'thin blue line' flag, meant to show support for law enforcement workers.
The video has garnered tens of thousands of views and shares on social media.
Floyd, a black man, was pinned to the pavement May 25 by a white Minneapolis police office who put his knee on Floyd's neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds. Floyd later died. Protests have been held in cities and towns around the world calling for an end to police brutality and systemic racism.
The New Jersey Department of Corrections put out a statement Tuesday afternoon that said they were made aware that one of its officers participated in the filming of a 'hateful and disappointing video that mocked the killing of George Floyd.'
'The individual has been suspended from their post and banned from NJDOC facilities pending a thorough and expedited investigation,' the statement said.
The counter-protesters at the lumber yard sparked outrage by protesting against the Black Lives Matter marchers
The group is standing on the roadside in front of a pickup truck outfitted with an American flag and a Trump banner. Several others are nearby. An 'All Lives Matter' sign is also hanging
It's unknown which of the people in the video works for the Department, which did not identify the employee by name.
The department said he was a senior corrections police officer who joined the Corrections Department in March 2002 and worked at a youth detention facility in Bordentown until January 2019, when he moved to the Bayside prison in Leesburg.
Another person in the video is a FedEx employee, who has since been fired, a company spokesman said.
The fired FedEx employee was identified by TMZ as James DeMarco, and is believed to be the man who was kneeling on another man's neck.
'He's dead because he didn't comply,' the man identified as DeMarco was heard shouting in at the protesters, referencing Floyd's death.
A statement from Police Chief Brian Zimmer and Mayor John Bruno said they were 'appalled and saddened by the revolting actions of certain individuals'.
Governor Phil Murphy condemned the stunt Tuesday night on Twitter, saying the state won't 'let the actions of a few distract from our progress toward dismantling systemic racism.'
'Mocking George Floyd´s murder in effort to belittle the calls for justice from our Black and Brown communities is repugnant,' Murphy tweeted.
NBC10 reported they called multiple phone numbers listed for the property where the counter-protesters were, but has not received a response.
Meanwhile, protests continued across the country as Floyd was laid to rest following a massive memorial service in Houston.
George Floyd's golden casket is on its way to its final resting place following a powerful funeral service in Houston, where loved ones shared their memories and community leaders demanded his death lead to widespread change. Pallbearers pictured carrying Floyd's body out of the Fountain of Praise Church in Houston on Tuesday
Rev. Al Sharpton looked on as pallbearers hauled Floyd's golden casket into the hearse following a powerful service
Police officers were seen walking next to the horse-drawn carriage carrying Floyd's body on Tuesday
Floyd was fondly remembered Tuesday as 'Big Floyd' - a father and brother, athlete and neighborhood mentor, and now a catalyst for change - at a funeral for the black man whose death has sparked a global reckoning over police brutality and racial prejudice.
More than 500 mourners wearing masks to combat the coronavirus packed a Houston church a little more than two weeks after Floyd was pinned to the pavement by a white Minneapolis police officer who put a knee on his neck for what prosecutors said was 8 minutes, 46 seconds.
Cellphone video of the encounter, including Floyd´s pleas of 'I can´t breathe,' ignited protests and scattered violence across the U.S. and around the world, turning the 46-year-old Floyd - a man who in life was little known beyond the public housing project where he was raised in Houston´s Third Ward - into a worldwide symbol of injustice.
The funeral capped six days of mourning for Floyd in three cities: Raeford, North Carolina, near where he was born; Houston, where he grew up; and Minneapolis, where he died. The memorials have drawn the families of other black victims whose names have become familiar in the debate over race and justice - among them, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Ahmaud Arbery and Trayvon Martin.
After the service, Floyd´s golden casket was taken by hearse to the cemetery in the Houston suburb of Pearland to be entombed next to his mother, for whom he cried out as he lay dying. A mile from the graveyard, the casket was transferred to a glass-sided carriage drawn by a pair of white horses. A brass band played as his casket was taken inside the mausoleum.
Hundreds of people, some chanting, 'Say his name, George Floyd,' gathered along the procession route and outside the cemetery entrance in the mid-90s heat.
In New York, state lawmakers have repealed a decades-old law that kept law enforcement officers´ disciplinary records secret, spurred by the national uproar over the death of George Floyd.
New York: Thousands of New Yorkers joined by religious leaders and elected officials gathered at Brooklyn Borough Hall on Tuesday for a massive march over the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan
NEW YORK: Protesters march across the Brooklyn Bridge as part of a solidarity rally calling for justice over the death of George Floyd, and to highlight police brutality nationwide, Tuesday in Brooklyn
The measure to make officers´ records and misconduct complaints public is among several police accountability bills racing through the state legislature. Lawmakers passed other bills that would provide all state troopers with body cameras and ensure that police officers provide medical and mental health attention to people in custody.
Many of those bills were first proposed years ago, but got new momentum after huge protests nationwide condemned police brutality.
The passage came as criminal charges were brought Tuesday against an NYPD officer over his rough treatment of a protester during demonstrations following the death of Floyd, who pleaded he couldn´t breathe as a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee on his neck May 25.
Eliminating the law, known as Section 50-a, would make complaints against officers, as well as transcripts and final dispositions of disciplinary proceedings, public for the first time in decades.
Governor Andrew Cuomo, who has recently supported reforming the law, has said in the wake of the protests that he will sign the repeal. Only Delaware has a similar law.
MASSACHUSETTS: A Massachusetts State Trooper watches a group of protesters as they gather along Revere Beach Boulevard before peacefully demonstrating about the arrest of George Floyd in Revere, Massachusett
LOS ANGELES: Protesters stage a sit-in in front of the Laugh Factory comedy club on Tuesday in Hollywood
SAN FRANCISCO: Protesters participate in a social distance, Kneeling for Justice, and a memorial for George Floyd Tuesday
WASHINGTON DC: Protesters stand on a light post on 16th Street NW in front of the White House which was renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza as protests over the death of George Floyd continue on Tuesday
In Oregon, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said Tuesday he will make policing changes that include ending the use of patrol officers on public transit and redirecting $7 million from the police budget to other areas.
Wheeler said in a news conference he also plans to dissolve the police gun violence reduction unit, ban chokeholds and reform the use of consent searches in traffic stops. He said bold action is necessary in the wake of nationwide protests against the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis on Memorial Day.
Wheeler said officers will be pulled from public transit by the end of the year and a more trusted police accountability panel will be created. The current Independent Police Review committee is under the city auditor´s office.
Meanwhile, a sweeping police accountability bill introduced amid protests over the death of George Floyd has passed the Colorado state Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support.
Senators from both parties spoke at length on Tuesday about the compromises that went into the bill before backing it in a 32-1 vote.
The bill was changed in response to some issues raised by law enforcement. It would allow police officers to be sued for misconduct by getting rid of the qualified immunity defense that generally protects government workers from lawsuits. It also requires all local and Colorado State Patrol officers to be equipped with body cameras by July 2023.
Footage shows group of Trump supporters - including a New Jersey corrections officer and FedEx employee - taunt protesters by reenacting George Floyd's death as they passed by - sparking town mayor to call it 'revolting'
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June 10, 2020
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