A horrifying video of two white men went viral after they were captured mocking the death of George Floyd. The two did the stunt when Black Lives Matter protesters marched in front of them.
Insensitive stunt
One of the men is a corrections officer in New Jersey and has been suspended while the other man is a FedEx worker who is now fired. On June 8, Black Lives Matters protesters marched in Franklin Township in South Jersey.
That was when they were greeted by a small group of white men who displayed a Trump 2020 flag, a "thin blue line" flag, and an "all lives matter" sign.
One of the men was lying face down on the ground, and another man had his knee on the man's neck, recreating the way that Derek Chauvin pinned down George Floyd until he passed away.
The local organizer of the protest, Daryan Fennal, told NBC Philadelphia that the insensitivity and the racially charged counter-protest automatically brought him to tears. It proves that racism is real in the country and it is alive. In the video, one of the men was heard shouting that people should comply with the cops so that what happened to Floyd won't happen again.
The names of the men in the video have not been released. New Jersey Department of Corrections, in response to the racist incident, revealed that one of the counterprotesters who was mocking the death of George Floyd was an employee.
The department said in a statement that they posted on social media that they were made aware that one of their officers participated in the filming of a disappointing, racist and hateful video that mocked the gruesome murder of George Floyd. The man in the video has been suspended and banned from the department facilities.
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Meanwhile, FedEx stated that the other person that was involved in the racist incident was one of their employees and he is now fired. FedEx said in a statement to NBC News on June 10 that they do not tolerate the offensive and appalling behavior seen in the viral video.
The governor of New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy, also criticized the counterprotesters. The governor posted on Twitter that mocking the murder of George Floyd in order to belittle the protesters who are calling for justice for the killings of people in the black and brown communities is repugnant.
The governor added that they won't let the actions of a few people distract the state from their progress toward dismantling systemic racism.
Similar incident
In the United Kingdom, Black Lives Matter protesters were also met with counterprotesters. The people were marching in Hoddesdon, a town in the Broxbourne borough of the English county of Hertfordshire when it was cut short after a group of people shouted racist comments and referred to the murder of Lee Rigby.
The Chief Constable of Hertfordshire, Bill Jephson, said that they will always challenge discrimination and racism wherever they find it. He added that they understand that people of all ethnicities are horrified and angry about the death of George Floyd.
Jephson said that they stand should to shoulder with the public and they are also saddened and angered by the death of Floyd. As for the counterprotesters, the police had escorted them out of the streets in order to prevent any physical attacks from happening.
