Miami cops fight after traffic stop (VIDEO)
Two Miami police officers are under investigation for a physical altercation between the pair that was captured by a camera.
Uniformed officer Marcel Jackson’s personal video equipment recorded a traffic stop of Lt. David Ramras, wherein Jackson eventually throws Ramras to the ground when the superior officer attempted to exit his vehicle.
Jackson also recorded a phone call made after the stop, WPLG-TV reported, once three other officers arrived on the scene and Ramras was identified as a lieutenant in the department’s Internal Affairs unit.
“I had to like, sling him to the ground,” Jackson says to an unidentified officer. “Bro, I thought I was going to get into a shooting.”
Miami police do not allow officers to carry private recording devices, nor it is official policy for dashboard cameras to accompany department vehicles.
According to WPLG, Jackson said Ramras initially refused to pull over for speeding, leading to a brief pursuit before he finally stopped.
Ramras allegedly told Jackson to “get the f*ck in your car,” WTVJ-TV reported, and asked the on-duty officer, “Do you know who the f*ck I am?”
The other officers that initially helped subdue Ramras were reportedly unaware that Jackson was filming the incident.
“I’m like, ‘Yo, I don’t know who you are, bro. Don’t jump out on me,’” Jackson can be heard saying on his recorded phone call. “I said, ‘I don’t care if you’re a lieutenant or who you are.’”
As the Miami police investigation of the incident unfolds, Ramras has been assigned to another post, according to the Miami Herald. Jackson has been relieved of duty with pay, partly given that he has denied request to turn over his camera after providing video of the tussle.
“An officer recording traffic stops with a private camera, the rules say you can’t do that,” Chief Manuel Orosa told the Herald. “We’re liable for what he does at work and [the video] needs to be stored for safekeeping. If it’s destroyed, that’s a no-no.”
Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado called the incident “a shame.”
“It really looks bad because it’s right in the middle of Flagler and you have a plainclothes officer fighting another officer,” he said. “But it doesn’t represent our police department.”
