Video Resurfaces of Yakima Officer Putting Knee on Someone’s Neck

There I was this afternoon, relaxing in my jammies, sipping on ginger ale, watching a movie, scrolling on Facebook, and minding my own business being nosy, when all of a sudden, a friend of mine sent me a link to a YouTube video. I clicked on the link and the headline made me sit straight up out of my bed.

The title of the video said, "Yakima police officers abusing there(sic) power".

The video, uploaded by the PNWCONCERTS & Music Artis YouTube channel, is only 28 seconds long, so the viewer is not able to see what led up to the incident or how it ended.

In the video, there is what appears to be a Latinx man in handcuffs being walked to a Yakima Police car, from what looks like the front of a Walmart store. The man is handcuffed and struggling to get away from the grip of the officer. The officer appears to have a grip on the back of the man's hands. The man continues to struggle to get away from being restrained.

Next, the officer frees up one of his hands in an attempt to open up the back passenger door of his police cruiser. He is then seen grabbing the handcuffed man by the back of his neck and throwing him face down to the parking lot concrete.

The man topples over from being thrown and the officer next appears to puts his knee on the back of the man's neck to subdue him even further. At this point in the video, a woman runs up to the officer and throws her hands on her face in horror. She appears to be saying something to the officer, but they're no sound on the video. The woman decides to run away from the scene and is seeing fleeing to her car in the distance. The officer continues to rest his knee on the back of the man's neck as other store patrons begin to crowd around the incident.

While the YouTube video link has been shared many times on Facebook, there has been no comment about it from the Yakima Police Department on their website or social media.

Many on social media are saying this is yet another case of police brutality. If this video begins to go viral, it will likely result in more community members demanding policing reform in the Yakima Police Department. On Friday, June 12th, youth at a protest on North 1st Ave and Yakima Ave, asked Yakima Police Chief Matt Murray to sign their list of demands for policing reform in the Yakima Police Department.