White cop coughs near black residents amid Wuhan virus pandemic

This is the kind of story that conservatives hate to report because we tend to praise first responders, although we are still acutely aware that every group has fungus growing in the deep recesses. And the Baltimore PD officer in this story is a fine representative of that fungus.

In an expletive-laden video that first surfaced on Instagram, a woman can be heard laughing and cursing at the officer, saying "Hey, Officer Friendly with the cherry cheeks." 

He then coughs at the camera.

The officer, who is not wearing a face mask walks by and passes several black residents standing along the sidewalk and seems to start coughing loudly. 

“Black people don’t get that sh**,” the woman yells at the cop, obviously misinformed. 

After the video made its appearance, the Baltimore Police Department started an investigation Tuesday into the video.

“After watching the full video, in its entirety, it is not only disturbing, but incomprehensible, especially considering the high level of strong and clear guidance that we have provided from the beginning, regarding COVID-19,” Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said in a statement.

“Members are always expected to be sensitive and professional to the community, but what we saw in the video is alarming because this pandemic is affecting lives not only nationally, worldwide, but right here in our own police department.”

Baltimore City Council President Brandon Scott said he forwarded the video to the police commissioner to demand an investigation. He addressed it in a series of tweets earlier Tuesday. He tweeted:

COVID-19 is not a joke and this behavior is beyond unacceptable. When you're in public service, it's your duty to treat everyone with respect, especially when we are dealing with both a public health pandemic and a gun violence epidemic. This is not behavior that we want our police officers or any of our public servants to model to residents.

Everyone can contract COVID-19 and all of Baltimore has to take this seriously and treat each other with respect. For public servants, this means carrying out duties with safety and compassion at the forefront of all actions. For citizens, this means adhering to the advice of public health professionals while following government guidelines issued to save lives.

The Baltimore PD’s Public Integrity Bureau  is investigating the incident and will review both the officer’s body camera footage and the woman’s cell phone video, reported Fox 46 Baltimore.

It isn't as if the cop didn't know better. Last week the BPD officers underwent daily health checks which included mandatory temperature screenings twice daily, and the cops were ordered to wear department provided N95 masks when responding to calls or interacting with the public.

Now this cop is presumed innocent unless proven guilty, but the video is pretty clear as to what he did, and he probably should pay some serious consequence, and perhaps even lose his job if he is a problem to the department. I don't know if this was a racist taunt, but it certainly looks bad for this cop.

Maryland recorded at least 5,529 confirmed cases statewide, with at least 124 deaths by 10 a.m. Wednesday, according to the state's emergency management agency website.

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