Police are investigating a possible hate crime in the town of Stamford after a white man was filmed on camera claiming he was being “harassed” by a group of black men and yelled: “White lives matter too!” The man reportedly also pepper-sprayed the group of five black men who were in a park.
The incident occurred at Cove Island Marina in Stamford on Saturday, June 20. The attorney for the men, Darnell Crosland, said that the group had met in a park last week to celebrate two of their birthdays, when a white man — who claimed to be neighborhood police — pulled up the group and yelled, saying they can not have their boat there. This led to a confrontation between the two.
The videos of the incident circulating on social media show one of the black men, asking: “What is wrong with you? No one was in the water. Just relax.” The white man, who has not yet been identified, yells back saying: “I’ve been down here my whole f****** life. I live here.” He then walks towards one of the men with his phone to his year, saying: “What are you going to do to me? Oh yeah?” One of the men then attempts to calm the white man down, saying: “Hey, back it up.” The white man then continues to talk on his phone, saying: “I am being harassed by a bunch of black men here.” In the video, the black man filming can be heard being shocked and saying “wow.”
The white man then tells a person over the phone that he has a boat in the marina and has a right to get to his boat. “They came down here to sit on the boat in the parking lot, apparently,” he says. The man filming the incident then interjects, saying: “Who said we were going to put the boat in the water? We’re hanging out.” He then proceeds to ask what is the white man’s name, to which he responds saying: “My name is God. G.O.D.”
The black man then laughs and says: “The nerve of this guy.” The white man then yells: “A bunch of black guys harassing me. White lives matter too!” The black man laughs at him again, and says: “You’re going viral.” The white man is then captured on camera attempting to pepper spray one of the men in the group, who happened to be an off-duty policeman with Bridgeport police department.
Two of the black men, Tarae Frazier and Tyshawn Frazier, who were involved in the incident, spoke to ABC from their attorney’s office. “I felt afraid,” Tarae Frazier told ABC. “Had a couple flashbacks of videos that we’ve all seen in the same particular situation, and I still don’t feel comfortable.” Tarae’s cousin Tyshawn, who was also among the group, said: “We shouldn’t have to be fearful of our lives going out to have fun. My birthday is on Juneteenth, so we went to the beach to have a good time, to have a great b-day weekend.”
The pair’s attorney then added saying that white man attempted to weaponize the 911 system: “What this gentleman knew was that he can weaponize the 911 system, just like the lady in Central Park did, and so he doesn’t have to pull a gun anymore. Because of the system that is built on racism and prejudice, he was able to just call 911.”
Stamford Police Department, along with the Bureau of Criminal Investigations (BCI), is reportedly probing the incident. “This incident is currently an active investigation,” Lt. Tom Scanlon, the head of the BCI said. “Numerous individuals were involved and or witnessed circumstances leading up to the confrontation that had occurred. The Department is in the process of interviewing and obtaining formal statements from all involved individuals and sourcing a complete video as evidence.”
