Lieutenant told Palestinian protester ‘go back to Mexico,’ video shows. He’s suspended
.png "A Michigan police lieutenant has been suspended after a video surfaced where the lieutenant can be heard making an inappropriate comment to a protester.")
A Michigan police lieutenant has been suspended after a video surfaced where he can be heard making an inappropriate comment to a protester.
“As promised, the department has continued its investigation into the matter of lieutenant Brandon Cole,” a statement from Detroit Police Chief James E. White said.
The investigation into Cole began after a video was taken during a May 19 protest in downtown Detroit, according to WXYZ. Pro-Palestinian protesters gathered when President Joe Biden was a keynote speaker for the Detroit NAACP Branch Fight For Freedom Fund Dinner.
Warning: The video linked below contains explicit language.
A video captured by one of the protesters circulated on Tik Tok, showing Cole ask a protester “why don’t you just go back to Mexico?”
The woman in the video can be heard telling the lieutenant she’s not Mexican and is of Palestinian descent.
“Initially, as many people, I was offended and I was outraged,” White said at a May 20 news conference.
White said through investigating, a “substantial amount of evidence was obtained.”
Police body camera footage released during the news conference showed protesters verbally attacking Cole and yelling profanities at him
Cole can then be heard saying to a woman, “why don’t you just go back to Mexico, cause that’s where you were hanging out. You were hanging out there and having a good time there.”
The woman then told Cole she is not Mexican, and he responds by saying, “no, you went there.”
The woman then accuses Cole of stalking her Instagram.
Commander Michael McGinnis said Cole’s comment was referring to a recent vacation the protester took to Mexico.
“Go back and hang out in Mexico where you were at. Go party, go party in Mexico again,” Cole can be heard saying.
“When you add that context, it changes the egregiousness of the interaction, and though it does not eliminate concerns that Chief White has, it does change the storyline,” McGinnis said.
However, in White’s May 22 statement, he said he was “briefed on additional facts that have surfaced.”
He goes on to say that the protester in question was not the one making personal verbal attacks against Cole, but it was another unidentified protester who was nearby.
“Having considered this new information, my concerns over the events of May 19 have worsened,” White said. “Despite the hard work of the officers at the event, the recent protest was one of the larger ones we have had to deal with over the past couple years, which has revealed deficiencies in the operations of the unit.”
Because of this, White said the department “will be examining the unit’s leadership practices, ensuring that officers continue to adhere to this department’s policies and training. If warranted, appropriate changes will be made.”
White also said he put in a referral with the Board of Police Commissioners to have Cole’s pay withheld during his suspension.
