One of two Virginia cops who
pulled guns on and assaulted
an army officer has been fired.
The situation stems from a traffic
stop involving an army officer by
the name of Caron Nazario,
who is both Latino and black.
Nazario was driving on a dark road
in rural Virginia when the police
tried to pull him over for
allegedly a missing license plate.
The car actually had a temporary
license plate,
since it was a new car.
Anyway, at that point Windsor,
Virginia police officer Joe
Gutierrez tried to pull him over.
And unfortunately,
the situation became very
violent from that moment on.
So I want to show you the video
of what occurred, and
then I'll give you more details
about the aftermath.
>> I'm honestly afraid to get out,
can I- >> Yeah, you should be.
Get out, now.
>> I have not committed any crimes.
>> [INAUDIBLE] you are not
cooperating at this point
right now.
You're under arrest for,
you're being detained, okay?
You're being detained for- >> For
traffic violation, I do not
have to get out the vehicle.
You haven't even told me why I'm
being stopped.
>> About two to three minutes in,
officer Crocker tried to open
the driver's door.
In his report, he wrote, quote,
when I attempted to unlock and
open the driver's door,
the driver assaulted myself by
striking my hand away and pulled
away from officer Gutierrez's grip.
But in his own body camera footage,
Nazario is not seen striking
anyone.
Crocker's report also says that,
at this point, Gutierrez, quote,
gave several more commands to
comply with orders, or he would be
sprayed with his OC spray.
But no such warnings could
be heard.
Gutierrez just sprayed Nazario,
still without either officer
having told Nazario what exactly he
was pulled over for.
>> That's [BLEEP] up.
That's [BLEEP] up.
>> Get out of the car now.
>> I don't even want to reach
my seatbelt, can you?
>> Take your seatbelt off and
get out of the car.
You made this way more difficult
than it had to be!
Get on the ground.
>> Can you please talk to me about
what is going on? >> Get on
the ground!
>> Can you please talk about what's
going on?
Why am I being [INAUDIBLE], why?
>> because you're not cooperating,
get on the ground.
>> So already from that video you
can see where the police report
differs significantly from what
actually happened and
what was caught on that
footage that we showed you.
I should also note that, since
the army officer here, Nazario,
was driving on a dark rural road,
what he did when the cops tried to
pull him over was put
his blinker on, indicating that he
intends to pull over.
But he drove to a lit area for
the officers' safety and for
his own safety.
And so that is going to be
discussed in this next clip, which
also touches on what I'm sure many
people are thinking about front and
center, and that's the racial
component to the story.
Let's take a look.
>> Nazario explained why he didn't
immediately pull over.
>> I was pulling over to a well lit
area for my safety and yours.
I have respect for law enforcement.
>> But Gutierrez said that wasn't
the problem.
>> The climate we're in, with
the media spewing with the race
relations between minorities and
law enforcement?
I get it, okay?
So like I told you,
as far as you not stopping,
you weren't comfortable, and you
wanted a well lit spot, lieutent,
that happens all the time.
It happens to me a lot.
And it's I'll say 80% of the time,
not always, 80% of the time,
it's a minority >> And
while the officers couldn't
understand why Nazario didn't get
out of the car as instructed-
>> Why wouldn't you comply?
>> Nazario said he didn't know why
he was being stopped.
>> I've never looked out the window
and saw guns blazing immediately.
>> Gutierrez eventually told us
Nazario that he had a conversation
with the chief of police and
was giving him the option to let
this all go.
>> There's no need for
this on your record.
I don't want it on your record.
However, it's entirely up to you.
If you want to fight and argue, and
I don't mean
that disrespectfully, okay?
I mean, you have that right
as a citizen.
If that's what you want,
we'll charge you.
It doesn't change my life
either way.
>> After reviewing that
footage, Windsor,
Virginia police have decided to
fire police officer Joe Gutierrez.
And obviously, for good reason.
Everything that the army officer
alleged has been proven by that
video, including the very clear
threat regarding Nazario's military
reputation and future.
So there have already been some
consequences.
The other cop that was there seemed
pretty terrified and
didn't know what he was doing.
I'm not saying that he's not
going to face any consequences or
shouldn't, but that's where we're
at with this story right now.
Cenk, what do you think?
>> So one of the worst parts of it
was right in the beginning,
when they pull up to him.
For about a minute,
they keep yelling two contradictory
commands.
And watching the video,
I had read the headline,
I knew he hadn't been killed.
But I was so worried that something
worse was going to happen to him,
because they kept saying,
put your hands out the window and
get out of the car.
Well, if your seatbelt is buckled,
you can't have your hands
outside the window and
get out of the car, you just can't.
And you saw that play out later
in the video.
And you guys saw some of that in
the portions that we played, right?
And so, and I remember a story we
covered where, in that case was
a white guy in a hotel room and
the cops had him crawling around on
the floor, and they kept giving him
contradictory orders.
And when he followed one but
not the other, because he couldn't
do both at the same time,
they shot him dead, right?
So that's why I was so worried for
this guy at the beginning of
the video.
Luckily, in this case,
they didn't shoot him.
I mean, this is the lowest bar we
have, right?
And we're always like, my god,
he didn't get murdered for
no reason, thank god.
All right, now let's talk about
the rest of the story, right?
And then when you talk about that,
so getting pulled over,
he didn't have tags.
It turns out he did have tags,
it was temporary tags, super clear.
So, guys, think about it, okay?
Just in every one of these stories,
all I ask you to do is put yourself
in each person's shoes, right?
So if you're the driver of a car,
it doesn't matter what race you
are, right?
If the cops pull up on you when you
have an excellent sense that you
didn't do anything wrong, and
they pull guns immediately.
I mean, I've been pulled over a lot
of times,
I never got a gun pulled on me.
I'd be like, my god,
what is going on?
Why are they pulling guns on me?
What's happening?
And they're like,
get out of the car, and
have your hands out.
And it looks like, do they have me
mistaken with someone else,
that's like a mortal danger
to everyone in this neighborhood?
I mean, what kind of an incredible
murderer do they think I am,
to get this kind of treatment?
And that was over because he had
perfectly legitimate temporary tags
that you either saw or didn't see,
and you wanted to pull him over
because he's a black man in a nice
looking car.
Let's keep it real.
And you saw the officer talking
about minorities later, right?
So you know if it happened to
a white right-winger,
they would be enraged.
They would be enraged.
How dare you treat me like this?
I have my rights.
When a white right-winger says
that, they feel perfectly
emboldened to say it.
When a African American person says
it, no matter where they're from,
in this case a lieutenant in
the army, they think, how dare you
not get on the ground with your
face on the pavement with a gun to
your head for no reason at all?
Comply, you must comply.
If you don't comply,
even within an inch,
we have every right to execute you.
Now, we're supposed to accept this?
And guys, I'm tired of
the bad apple nonsense,
totally, I'm exhausted.
How many videos like this,
we've literally show you hundreds
of videos like this.
It's not bad apples,
we train cops to be vicious.
We train cops to enforce their
authority, and that that is their
number one priority.
It doesn't matter what the crime
is, it matters to some degree
who the person is and
what race they are, okay?
But most importantly, if they do
not comply with your orders,
contradictory, logical, legal or
not legal, it doesn't matter.
Then you crush that citizen.
And you show them who's boss by
either shooting them,
tasering them, pounding their face
in the pavement.
Why are they arresting the guy in
the first place?
They didn't even ask him a single
question.
He's in the car,
he's got his hands out.
He's not a threat.
Why don't you go ask him
a question?
Hey, how about your tags?
Right, there's your tags.
Hey, are you a criminal, for
no reason?
I'm asking you because
you're black.
Ask him the question.
I don't know, ask
him what you're going to ask him.
No, and they're never going to do
anything.
Now the governor in Minnesota in
a different story is talking about,
we have to do something.
Shut up, they are constantly,
with the politicians.
We should do something, but
not defund the police.
Not this, not that,
not this, not this, police union!
Give me the money.
Give me the money, police union.
Okay, I love you, guys, etc.
I almost said it, anyway, so
they're not going to do anything.
They're going to pull over more
black people.
They're going to kill more of them.
They're going to threaten
more of them.
But if you actually go to fix the
problem, which is police training.
And you say,
hey, maybe the cops shouldn't go to
maximum force every single time,
they're going to say,
you're endangering police lives.
You're endangering police lives.
Nothing but total BS.
I'm sick of it.
So it isn't bad apples.
It is the whole culture of
policing, because we train
them to be brutal and vicious, and
especially to poor people, and
especially to minorities.
>> I mean,
I think it's a combination of so
many different things.
Yes, there's an issue with
training. In this particular case,
you have the police department
saying that they're firing
Gutierrez because he didn't
follow protocol.
For instance,
he refused to tell Nazario what he
was being pulled over for,
what he was being arrested for.
That was never answered.
So that's point number one.
Point number two is we've been
dealing with story after story of
unarmed individuals getting shot
and killed by cops over, and over,
and over again.
And what tends to happen when there
isn't a legitimate reform or
response to that?
Well, it emboldens cops, right?
I mean, if you feel that
you're invincible, if you feel that
you have anger issues, and
you can carry them out on anyone
you come across.
And you don't have to deal with any
consequences for literally shooting
and killing an unarmed individual.
Well then, why would you fear
carrying out an act of violence
like that or excessive force once
a situation arises?
The other thing is,
let's keep it real.
We have a security state,
a militarized police state that is
a byproduct of our foreign policy
as well.
I mean, part of the reason why we
see this militaristic activity or
behavior by cops
is because the giant inventory of
weaponry that we have for
our military continues to get made.
We have a surplus, and it gets
shifted over to police departments.
I mean, all of that creates this
culture of violence that seems
to be greenlit by, yes, the police
union that protects the cops
regardless of what they do.
But also by right-wing media,
by right-wing politicians, and
the cycle goes on, and on, and on.
And on the other side,
do we have lawmakers who
are willing to do something that's
actually substantive
in response to police violence?
And the answer is no. Look,
I'm going to keep it real.
People are going to hate
what I'm about to say.
The mass protests had happened last
summer were incredibly
important, okay?
I mean,
largest protests in US history, but
what did the protesters get in
return from Democratic
lawmakers on a local level?
We're going to do
a Black Lives Matter mural mural in
front of Trump Tower.
So what, so what?
What does that do to fundamentally
change policing in this country?
And the mass protests
are important, but
they need to be coupled with some
sort of mechanism to continue
applying pressure to lawmakers.
Organized individuals who continue
applying pressure, and
we just have not seen that.
And so what we get in response is
more mass shootings,
more mass shootings.
I think it's too simplistic to say,
it's just the training.
Yeah, one other massive thing I
forgot to mention.
White supremacists infiltrating
local police departments across
the country,
that's a huge problem as well.
I mean, there's so
many different factors to look at.
And really, there haven't been any
substantive responses or reforms
after we see all these examples.
>> No, look, let's be honest,
Democrats have done nothing.
What did Joe Biden do today?
In the second story of police abuse
in Minnesota, he went and
yelled at the protesters.
Because, no, no,
you don't want to seem like you're
soft on protesters.
And so I get it,
there was looters in Minnesota.
And they shouldn't do that.
Yeah, well, since those protests,
like Ana said,
what have you done for them?
Nothing, nothing.
So then you say, well,
you shouldn't get frustrated.
Well, okay,
then why don't you do something?
No, I'm not going to.
Well, okay, then screw you.
We just covered a story last week
in LA, same thing.
There's a police response, turns
out somebody did domestic violence,
turns out it's a white guy.
They didn't hear it, and
it didn't get conveyed to them it's
a white guy.
They just pull over the first
black guy.
And same thing, they don't even ask
him any questions.
They handcuff him immediately,
they rough him up immediately.
He says, this is my house,
why are you doing this to me?
They're like, how dare you?
I'm a cop,
I'll do whatever the hell I want.
I have ultimate authority.
Ana, that's why I talk about
the training. I don't mean
training like,
you put on the handcuffs wrong.
No, I mean their entire culture is
wrong.
They train them to abuse
the citizens.
They train them to
use as much force as possible, and
to never take a risk with even
getting a fingernail hurt.
And they train them that,
if anyone looks suspicious,
[COUGH] black people, Latinos etc.,
to go rough them up and
handcuff them and arrest them, and
ask questions later.
Now, at the end, Gutierrez realizes
that it was a false arrest, and
what does he do?
He says, now,
I could continue to arrest you, and
that'll ruin your life, or you
could not make any trouble here.
Okay, so you know what you did is
wrong, and now you're threatening
to ruin his life anyway,
after you already screwed him over.
And let's be
honest about accountability.
There's no accountability.
Gutierrez got fired today,
you know why?
Because the video got released.
Before the video,
this happened back in December.
Before the video got released,
he wasn't fired.
They would have kept him, they
would have probably promoted him.
Because cops are allowed to get
away with anything.
That's what I mean by culture and
training.
Any politician, and
they're all mealy mouth,
they never do anything, and
they're not going to do anything.
Biden's not going to pass a goddamn
thing other than
things that are performative, okay?
They will all claim, yeah,
we're working so
hard out of Black Lives Matter,
instead of, but the culture!
How dare you, we have to
protect the police.
I mean, they had to murder
the people, bad apples.
Let's fire that guy,
let's fire that guy.
Did you ever fire any of
their trainers?
Did you ever fire any of
their bosses?
Did you ever go in there and
say, stop killing people because
you thought, hey, it's a black
person and I'm in danger.
I'll just shoot him and
be done with it.
Or in this case,
I'll pound them into the pavement,
just in case.
No, they're never going to
change it.
That's why people are sick
of white supremacy, and
these overlords constantly bullying
us and then forcing people that
are protesting to apologize.
Stop with the apologies, demand
some goddamn change, including from
Democrats who never do anything.