The video appears to show an officer threatening him with a second ticket for allegedly talking back. The clip has been watched almost nine million times.
The clip begins as the officer is handing @workingman330 paperwork to fill out, including a speeding citation. In the caption, @workingman330 claims that he was pulled over for driving at 85 miles per hour, though he says he was only driving at 70.
When asked for his name, the officer becomes visibly angry, seemingly offended or insulted by the question.
“Wait a second, wait a second, I’ll be back,” he says, holding up a finger. “I’m going to give you another ticket now for being a smarta**.” He then points to the driver’s phone and says, “I see your camera there. If you want to keep playing games, we can play games all day.”
“You were speeding. I gave you a chance. I was very polite to you. I was going to reduce it, but you decided to be argumentative. So let’s tell the facts of the case. Remember what happened.”
The officer then points to an object that appears to be hanging from @workingman330’s rearview mirror, which @workingman330 subsequently identifies as an air freshener, and tells him that it is not permitted there.
“You want to remove that, I won’t cite you,” he says.
Once @workingman330 does so, the officer says “Thank you for being compliant this time” in a sarcastic tone. The footage ends as he walks away from the car.
In a follow-up to the original clip, @workingman330 reports that he knows the officer’s speed reading was inaccurate because he had the cruise control set to 70. When he attempted to challenge the officer, he says, the officer allegedly “lost it and started yelling, telling me about how his s***’s [radar] calibrated and I don’t know if my truck’s calibrated or not.”
However, @workingman330 does not intend to eat the charge if he can help it.
“I do plan on going to court and fighting it,” he says. “I’m hoping to get the bodycam footage and the dashcam footage, so when I do that—if I get it—then I’ll share it with you guys.”
Many commenters thought that the officer’s actions represented an overreach of power, especially in the wake of the recent police killings of Duante Wright and Adam Toledo.
“Being ‘smart’ isn’t illegal last time I checked, also recording isn’t illegal either,” user @squillyj wrote.
“Bit of a power trip,” user @evanzimmerman1 wrote.