Sometimes cops go so overboard with their thuggery that even their fellow cops are taken aback which is exactly what happened in this video after a Miami cop named Miguel Hernandez grabbed a woman by her neck from the back of his patrol car and slammed her down on the concrete, leaving her unconscious.
“What the hell!” yelled a Miami cop named Rivera, kneeling down to check on the woman while looking up at Hernandez.
Several bystanders also yelled at Hernandez and looked ready to intervene.
“That’s a female, bro!” one of several men yelled as they approached the cops.
The video cuts out as Hernandez is calling for paramedics.
The woman, Julissa Burgos, who was 20 years old at the time, was charged with assault on a police officer and criminal mischief. But both charges were eventually dismissed, according to court records.
The incident took place on November 27, 2020 but the video only surfaced this week because the Miami Civilian Investigative Panel will review the video and the arrest during a public hearing this afternoon at 5:30 p.m. at Miami City Hall, according to the Miami Herald.
Burgos had been sitting on the sidewalk in front of a gas station prompting the owner to call police and have her removed. Hernandez was the first cop to arrive and ordered her to leave.
However, as Burgos was walking away, she turned her cigarette off on the rear side door of Hernandez’s patrol SUV, leaving an ash stain about an inch-long, sending Hernandez into a rage.
“You’re going to go back to my car and clean it,” he kept saying after he chased after her across the street.
She was sitting on the sidewalk and both Hernandez and Rivera began grabbing on to her to detain her.
“Don’t touch me!” she repeated but they eventually stood her up and walked her back across the street as she continued resisting, resulting in the cops taking her down and twisting her arms behind her back.
They eventually got her into the back of the patrol car and she is crying and appearing to be having a panic attack. She also appears to spit.
Seconds later, Hernandez grabs her by the throat and slams her down on the ground.
Hernandez’s supervisor, Sergeant Carlos Mendez, initially defended his actions as being “reasonable and within state laws,” but the sergeant’s supervisor, Lieutenant Rodolfo Beltrand, did not approve of the report and sent it back to him that same day, according to Herald.
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office began investigating, resulting in Hernandez resigning in June 2021 as well as relinquishing his police certification.
Mendez ended up retiring two months later in August 2021 so the Civilian Investigative Panel says it will likely close the case in tonight’s hearing after exonerating Beltrand because he did the right thing.
The investigative panel only has the power to make recommendations to the police chief as to whether an officer needs to be disciplined. And Miami’s police chiefs have historically refused to abide by the panel’s recommendations.
The investigative panel began in 2001 after a series of shootings and scandals rocked the department. The Miami Police Department is now on its eighth police chief since 2001 so it’s not a very stable job.
Last year, the Miami City Commission voted to terminate Miami Police Chief Art Acevedo after six months on the job after he accused the commission of interfering with his goal to reform the long-troubled agency.
Acevedo, who also served as police chief in Austin and Houston, filed a lawsuit against the city of Miami in January, accusing city officials of retaliating against him for being a whistle-blower.
Acevedo mentioned this incident in his lawsuit which you can read here. Watch the video below.
