Cell phone footage shows the moment Democratic California Rep. Maxine Waters approached and stood watching police officers who had pulled over a black driver, according to the Daily Caller.
The video shows an exchange between Waters and what seems to be two bystanders who filmed the incident.
Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA 43) making sure the brother pulled over is having his rights protected! Queen! pic.twitter.com/sT9Mk3Tz7X
— 𝐄𝐱𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐨𝐩𝐞 (@exavierpope) July 19, 2020
“They stopped a brother so I stopped to see what they were doing,” Waters explains to onlookers.
“Oh, okay,” one of the bystanders replied.
“They say I’m in the wrong place so they're going to give me a ticket, but that’s okay as long as I watch them,” Waters adds.
“You gotta do what you gotta do, make sure,” another bystander said.
Waters can then be seen approaching the officers. According to TMZ, Waters was driving in her congressional district (CA-43) when she noticed the officers performing a traffic stop with a black driver.
In June, Waters said in an interview with MSNBC that police “tradition” has to be “done away with,” according to Fox News.
“Tradition has not worked for us. So what you’re talking about paying attention to a police chief or your city council members who are saying they just can’t get it done, or your mayors who are elected, these police chiefs and don’t want to be accountable to them, all of that was tradition, and that’s got to be done away with,” Waters said.
This incident comes after both Senate Republicans and House Democrats pushed for police reform in Congress after the death of George Floyd and protests against police brutality across the country.
(Cover Photo: Gage Skidmore)