Thousands Demand Firing of San Jose Cop Filmed Antagonizing, Swearing at Protesters

[Celerity]

https://www.sanjoseinside.com/news/thousands-demand-firing-of-san-jose-cop-filmed-antagonizing-swearing-at-protesters/

One video shows the officer smirking, licking his lips and rocking back and forth, looking a little too excited to be facing off with protesters. Another clip shows him mean-mugging in much the same way. Both times, he directs an expletive at civilians. SJPD Officer Jared Yuen’s apparently antagonistic behavior emerged in tens of thousands of posts on social media since Friday, when cops clashed in downtown San Jose with people demonstrating against the killing of an unarmed black man in Minneapolis, specifically, and police brutality more broadly.

By the time a second round of protesters descended on City Hall the next day, the officer’s name was trending nationally on Twitter, with more than 30,000 mentions. One video was posted to the Reddit thread r/PublicFreakout where it garnered more than 70,000 up votes in the first 24 hours (and has since been locked.) In one of the videos, Yuen is heard yelling “shut up, bitch” at a female protester.

Link to tweet

A second video shows him smirking at protestors as another cop asks the crowd to disperse. And in a third video, he’s heard saying, “Let’s get this motherf*cker.”

Link to tweet

Since then, an untold thousands of people have called on Chief Eddie Garcia to fire Yuen and demanded answers from Mayor Sam Liccardo. Both Garcia and Liccardo swiftly condemned the killing of George Floyd and expressed sympathy for the public’s anger, but warned protesters to respect the rule of law.

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Some Twitter users compared Yuen’s behavior to that of Tou Thao—one of the three cops who looked on as Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck.

Link to tweet

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