Police Do Not Attempt to Arrest FBI Agent
The Claim
A video circulating on social media claims to depict police trying to arrest an FBI agent of Sudenese descent.
Emerging story
During the widespread unrest that has occurred in the United States after the murder of unarmed African American man George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Memorial Day 2020, a video began circulating on social media. The video claims to show two white police officers attempting to arrest a Sudenese American FBI agent.
Misbar’s Analysis
As protests against excessive force and police brutality against African Americans have spread throughout the United States in late May and early June of 2020, videos and images claiming to depict police interactions with the public have spread online. Much of this video has been helpful is showing events at protests as well as highlighting possible police misconduct and violence and property destruction by some protesters.
In one instance, a video claiming to show two police officers misidentifying a black man as a suspect in a crime that was committed. Captions to the video indicate that the reason that the man in question was not arrested was because he was identified as an FBI agent.
Nothing in the video indicates that the man was an FBI agent. The police officers in the video release the man after checking his wallet and seeing that his identification does not match that of the person they are looking for. There is no FBI badge or identification in his wallet, and the man never claims to be an agent.
A twitter post from someone who claims to know the man being detained states that he is an EMT, but this also not verified by any information available in the video.
The video is also not a recent video related to the unrest surrounding the death of George Floyd, but a video from June 2019. A press release from the Rochester, Minnesota police department addresses the incident. As such, we rate this story as misleading.
In summary, issues with policing in the United States are receiving wide attention at the moment. Though the video in question does show a contentious interaction between a black man and police officers, the captions that have been accompanying the video are inaccurate.
