A control freak of a cop in Nashville named Harvey Briggs stormed up to a man recording a traffic stop from a public sidewalk Monday and threatened to arrest him for impeding before ripping the face mask off his face.
Moments earlier, the Tennessee state trooper – who was not wearing a mask – had yelled at the man for recording but the man responded by saying, “I’m filming and I’m on a fucking sidewalk.”
That prompted Briggs to storm up to him from what appears to be a guard shack about 40 feet away with his hand on his gun.
“When you address me, you use less colorful language,” Briggs said. “I don’t appreciate that.”
“I don’t appreciate what you all do,” responded by Andrew Golden who is described as a protester in the local news article about the incident.
Briggs went on to accuse Golden of “impeding” the traffic stop he was recording but Golden was standing more than 20 feet away and was not saying anything in that direction.
“Why is your hand on your gun?” Golden asks.
“Because that’s the way it always is,” Briggs responds, placing his face inches away from Golden’s face, hoping to provoke a physical response.
“You’re not wearing a mask and you’re right up in my face,” Golden says as Briggs continues to accuse him of impeding when he is the only person doing the impeding.
Briggs then rips the mask off Golden’s face and tosses it on the ground before storming off.
“You just ripped the fucking mask off my face,” Golden yells. “What the fuck!”
“What’d I tell you about the language,” Briggs threatens before denying ripping the mask off.
Golden filed a complaint and the department responded by saying they are “reviewing the matter.”
Meanwhile, cops in Nashville have been issuing citations and warnings to people not wearings masks in defiance of a city mandate which is considered a misdemeanor under state law, according to WSMV.
Last week, a Nashville city council woman suggested attempted murder charges should be filed against people not wearing masks so perhaps we can start with Briggs.
