A Black Lives Matter protester was shoved by a sheriff and arrested for assault after he dangled a donut on a string in front of an officer in a widely circulated video on social media. Video footage of the incident, which took place in Everett, Washington, shows a man donning a yellow t-shirt and camo pants dangling a donut from a stick in front of someone who appears to be an off-duty officer.
"Get that shit away from my f**king face right now," the officer can be heard telling the man before a Snohomish County sheriff steps in and shoves the man as the man's donut stick falls to the ground.
"Hey, you got that?," the man asks his fellow protesters if they captured the incident on camera. One of the officers then places his foot on the donut stick as the man tries to pick it up before the officer who pushed the individual walks up to him and detains him.
Charged with Assault
"He assaulted a lieutenant. You back off or you'll go to jail," one of the officers says to the protesters in an attempt to get them to move back.
"He did not assault the lieutenant. The lieutenant assaulted him," the protester recording the video can be heard saying to the officers. The video then shows the demonstrators following the officers to a nearby building repeatedly chanting "cowards" and "quit your job."
The detained man asks the protesters to give the officers some space as they continue to hound them with slogans. "Hey, I'm not getting arrested," the man says to the demonstrators before asking them to move off the stairs as the officer holds his arm behind his back. Watch the video below:
As it turns out, the man was arrested and reportedly charged with fourth degree assault, which Washington state law defines as "an attempted battery on another person that causes contact that a reasonable person would find offensive."
Social Media Reactions
The viral video has sparked a debate on social media over the man's arrest with some claiming the police officer was wrong while others believe the man deserved to get arrested for his disrespectful behavior.
"It's not wrong (or illegal) to dangle a donut in front of a cops face. But it is wrong (and illegal) for a cop to assault someone for it," wrote one user.
"I'll have to respectfully disagree with this one that kid was being very disrespectful to the cop not that I'm saying the cop should've hit him but that kid was really disrespectful," commented another.
