🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
A Tennessee Highway Patrol officer has been fired after a viral video appeared to show him ripping off the face mask worn by a man recording a traffic stop.
Trooper Harvey Briggs was notified he was being terminated from the Highway Patrol for "unprofessional conduct" on Friday, according to WKRN.
Briggs can be seen in a video recorded by Andrew Golden, who was recording a traffic stop. Briggs was not involved in the stop, which occurred near the capitol building in Nashville. Instead, he was stationed in front of the capitol's entrance as a member of the Capitol Protection Unit.
In the video, Briggs appears to yell at Golden to stop recording the police. Golden replies that he's on the public sidewalk, using an expletive.
"I'm telling you I prefer better language than that out of you, understand?" Briggs says. He then walks closer to Golden, and the two get into an argument. Briggs accuses Golden of impeding the officers in the traffic stop. Golden replies that he's just filming them from a distance away.
"Why is your hand on your gun?" Golden asks.
"Because it always is," Briggs replies.
Golden then films Briggs' badge and nameplate, and suddenly yells: "What the f*ck? You gonna do something about that? He just ripped the f*cking mask off my face. What the f*ck?"
"What'd I say about the language, now?" Briggs says as he walks away.
"You just ripped a mask off my face!" Golden replied.
"I did not!" Briggs replies, to which Golden says he has it on video.
"I'm tired of you people makin' stuff up," Briggs says and walks back to his post.
Though the video does show the mask on the ground, it does not clearly show Briggs ripping it off. Golden told WKRN that Briggs "grabs my mask off of my right ear and rips it off and throws it on the ground. At that point, I'm just dumbfounded."
Video of the incident soon went viral. The video below contains strong language.
Tonight around 6:35pm CST I followed a citizen who was people pulled over by TN State Troopers for the purpose of...
Posted by Andrew Golden on Monday, August 10, 2020
On Wednesday, Golden told TMZ that he had filed a formal complaint against Briggs, and said that he was considering pressing charges. An investigation was opened on Wednesday and Briggs was put on discretionary leave, leading to his termination on Friday.
In a statement obtained by Newsweek, the Tennessee Highway Patrol confirmed that Briggs had been terminated.
"It is the Department of Safety and Homeland Security's policy to warn, suspend, demote or dismiss any employee whenever just or legal cause exists. Employees shall not commit any act that would reflect discredit upon themselves or the department while on or off duty," Lt. Bill Miller, spokesman for the Tennessee Highway Patrol, said.
"I think the only reason we saw all this happen, or the response where he was terminated, is because of the huge push back from social media against the officer and the overall support for me and the fact that it went viral I think is one of the only reasons that we're seeing the results that we're seeing," Golden told WKRN.
He confirmed to the station that he was still planning on meeting with an attorney to discuss pressing charges.
Update (8/15, 9:00 p.m.): This article has been updated to include comment from the Tennessee Highway Patrol and a photograph of Briggs.
About the writer
Matt Keeley is a Newsweek editor based in Seattle. His focus is reporting on trends and internet culture. He has ... Read more