A Cook County Forest Preserves police officer has been assigned to desk duty and an Illinois park is investigating after a woman accused him of standing by as an unidentified white man aggressively harassed her for wearing a shirt that featured the Puerto Rican flag.
The incident was filmed on June 14 as a Facebook live video by Mia Irizarry, who was wearing the Puerto Rican flag shirt. In the video, which has 1.7 million views already, the man is seen provoking Irizarry and aggressively asking why she is wearing a Puerto Rican flag shirt in America.
Irizarry was trying to celebrate her 24th birthday in the Forest Preserves of Cook County when the man came up and said: “Are you a citizen? Then you should not be wearing that. I would like to know is she an American citizen? Why is she wearing that s—?”
The man, who appears to be drunk, approaches Irizarry several times. “You’re not going to change us,” the man said. “The world is not going to change the United States of America. You should not be wearing that in the United States of America.”
The man’s behavior towards Irizarry appears to have been witnessed by a nearby police officer, who does not try to stop the man from continuing to verbally harass Irizarry, who makes repeated requests for help. “I am renting this area and he’s harassing me about the shirt that I’m wearing,” Irizarry says in the video. “Officer, I feel entirely uncomfortable, can you remove … please officer.”
The officer is seen in the video walking away from her.
The confrontation was viewed by the Governor of Puerto Rico Ricardo Rossello who said he was “appalled, shocked & disturbed by the officer’s behavior.”
Today a video surfaced of an undignified event in which a Puerto Rican woman was brutally harassed by a bigot while an officer did not interfere. I am appalled, shocked & disturbed by the officer’s behavior https://t.co/F9L4ewt1Ac @DavidBegnaud @ACLU
— Ricardo Rossello (@ricardorossello) July 10, 2018
