Body camera footage recently released by the Fort Lauderdale Police Department shows officers pushing a hotel employee who called for help after a guest attacked him.
According to an NBC News video report, the incident happened in January at a Best Western Plus hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and the video went viral after it was shared by civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump.
“Hotel employee Raymond Rachal attempted to exercise his RIGHT to cancel a white hotel guest’s stay for spitting racial slurs at him, but Ft. Lauderdale (Fla ) PD allowed the man to STAY and Rachal was attacked, arrested and charged with defending himself,” Crump wrote.
Hotel employee Raymond Rachal attempted to exercise his RIGHT to cancel a white hotel guest’s stay for spitting racial slurs at him, but Ft. Lauderdale Police officers (Fla) allowed the man to STAY and Rachal was attacked, arrested and charged for defending himself! pic.twitter.com/jTThAa9e3X
— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) March 27, 2022
Crump’s tweet contradicts police records, as NBC reported that the alleged white assailant, Jason Rabe, did not stay at the hotel. The incident, captured by security cameras and police body cameras, involved two separate altercations. During the first confrontation, officers forced Rabe out of the hotel, WSVN previously reported.
However, the report also notes that Rabe – who is white and who instigated the altercation – was visibly drunk. He was charged with trespassing and took a “courtesy ride” at a friend’s house, NBC reported.
During the second confrontation, police video shows Rachal sitting at a desk when Rabe returns to the hotel after the police leave and charges towards Rachal. Rachal is heard saying that he was attacked and had to defend himself.
The NBC report features excerpts from the police report where Fort Lauderdale police return for the second time. In this footage, an officer is seen pushing Rachal and then arresting and accusing her of disorderly conduct and violently resisting an officer. The charges were ultimately dropped by the state’s attorney’s office a month after the incident, according to WSVN News.
In the NBC report, excerpts from the police report indicate that officers claim Rachal put her hands on the officer’s upper torso and pushed him. This is not seen in the body camera footage.
It’s the same pi. Lauderdale, which last month fired its 24-year-old veteran police chief because 6 of the 15 promotions he made were BIPOC officers, and therefore “discriminatory” against white people.
ft. Lauderdale proudly goes all out on white supremacy. smhhttps://t.co/U0GxxOXw4j
— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@QasimRashid) April 4, 2022
“How come the clerk was arrested, but the subject in this whole thing can be brought home?” Independent law enforcement analyst Cedric Alexander asked NBC. “These are legitimate questions.”
Human rights lawyer Qasim Rashid tweeted that Fort Lauderdale police recently fired a 24-year-old veteran chief over ‘minority first’ hiring practices, including promotions deemed ‘discriminatory’ towards whites.
The ministry said it was conducting an internal investigation into the incident involving Rachal.
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