A new online video captured the moments just after a young man with no legs was pepper sprayed by police at a Columbus, Ohio protest. In...
A new online video captured the moments just after a young man with no legs was pepper sprayed by police at a Columbus, Ohio protest.
In the video, the young man laid on the curb after those same police, according to protesters at the even, took both his prosthetic legs.
The incident occurred on Sunday, June 21 in downtown Columbus, Ohio.
As in so many cities across the U.S, since the May 25 killing of George Floyd, Columbus has been home to weeks of protests calling for police reform and an end to system racism.
The video was originally posted to Reddit's Columbus subReddit before it began to make the rounds on Twitter. The 23 second clip showed as four other protesters used water to alleviate the young man's burning eyes.
One protester repeatedly screamed for a medic throughout the video.
Redditors commenting on the original post, many apparently Columbus locals, were disgusted by what happened.
"This is really hard to watch but should be shared far and wide." ~ aninvisiblemonster
"Are. You. Effing. Kidding. Me. On the same day the [Fraternal Order of Police] puts out that weak a** propaganda video, they're downtown macing a double amputee." ~ soothingscreams
The video was also shared on Twitter.
Laurenn McCubbin—a professor at Columbus College of Art & Design—posted her husband witnessed the moments before and after the struggle captured in the video.
Police body cam footage and other videos taken by protesters also captured the preceding advance by police into the protesters firsthand.
One tweet claimed to pinpoint the exact moment the young man was accosted.
Columbus Police Department's Sgt. James Fuqua, however, claimed body cam footage showed protesters removing the man's legs in their efforts to remove him from the grasp of police.
He released an over 7 minute video to make his case.
People quickly found several discprepancies. Fuqua claimed police were only going in to retrieve a bicycle from a person in shorts and and dark shirt with a sign.
Fuqua cites this person to justify macing the amputee, but then shows police ignoring that person with the bike and going toward a person in pants and a light shirt that Fuqua identified as the amputee.
Police say they did not take amputee's legsyoutu.be
This all comes just a few weeks after Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther announced that CPD officers were no longer permitted to use pepper spray or tear gas to disperse crowds.
With protests continuing on in Columbus and many other U.S. cities, moments like this one, unfortunately, continue.
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