North Braddock police give their side of viral TikTok video

NORTH BRADDOCK, Pa. — A TikTok video of a traffic stop that happened last year, is getting millions of views after it was recently posted to social media, leading to death threats against officers.

But North Braddock police say there is more to the story that wasn’t shown.

“We’ve received anywhere between 50 and 100 calls per day,” Matt Titmus with the police department said. “We received a call from an individual in Los Angeles making death threats towards the police.”

Cellphone video of a traffic stop that happened last September has recently gone viral when police said they pulled over an 18-year-old black man for speeding, found an open container of alcohol and smelled marijuana.

“One of the officers immediately recognized the smell of marijuana and just simply asked him and he was very forthcoming and said, ‘Yes I have a small bag of weed,’ and they removed him from the vehicle to retrieve it,” Titmus said. “This was a non-use-of-force action, this was a routine traffic stop so it didn’t raise any eyebrows.”

Until police say it was posted to TikTok last week, racking up millions of views.

“Obviously it throws up curiosity on our side, the body camera video was pulled. Myself and the chief both reviewed it and put it against our department SOP (standard operating procedure) guidelines making sure the sergeant in question didn’t violate any of his duties,” Titmus said.

In the video you can see a caption that says three cops were surrounding a young black man. Police said a woman arrived at the end of the traffic stop, when she tried to talk to the man they had pulled over.

Officers on scene told the woman she was parked illegally and she could be cited, and at one point during the recording the woman points out that the officer covered his badge.

“It’s a common thing for people to do when you wear external body armor because it’s easiest to put your hand somewhere without trying to look too intimidating,” Titmus said.

Police said they didn’t arrest the 18-year-old.

“Instead of charging him criminally for his actions that day which happened to just be a bad decision on his part he got a simple traffic citation and let him go about his business,” Titmus said.

North Braddock police said community members record 75% of their traffic stops on their cellphones but are now stressing others to do it safely and they say this particular incident could have posed a danger to others.

“We just encourage the public if they feel compelled and they want to videotape we invite that it’s just that they have to do it from a safe and reasonable distance,” Titmus said.

Pennsylvania State Conference NAACP President Kenneth Huston commented on the video, saying, “We saw nothing in the video that would validate or substantiate the Pennsylvania State Conference NAACP taking a position at this time. We continue to fight for civil rights for all citizens of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and we received no notification.”

Local Black Lives Matter Pittsburgh & Southwestern Pennsylvania member Tanisha Long said that while the video may have occurred last year, it is “still representative of the experience that many Black men and women face when pulled over for minor traffic violations.”

“After a bystander made it clear that the actions of the officer were being recorded, the officer used intimidation tactics threatening legal and financial repercussions against the woman for exercising her legal right to record. It is important that we recognize and continue to speak out against these clear abuses of power and press for repercussions against this type of behavior,” Long said.

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