A white Miami police officer was assigned to desk duty after stopping a black driver for not wearing his seat belt and telling him, “This is how you get killed out here, man.”
The driver, Gerardson Nicholas, chronicled the tense exchange on June 15 in North Miami Beach, before later sharing it via his TikTok account.
He said he was on his way to work when the officer ordered him to stop his vehicle. Nicholas admitted he was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the traffic stop.
“You’re not going to work,” the unidentified Miami-Dade police officer tells Nicholas, who adamantly replies, “I’m going to work!”
“You give me your driver’s license, your registration and your insurance,” the policeman then orders. “Otherwise you won’t go to work today.”
“Listen carefully,” an automated voice is heard saying on TikTok, before the cop adds, “Easy stuff, man. That’s how you get killed out here, man.”
Gerardson Nicholas (left) was pulled over in North Miami Beach last Wednesday for not wearing his seat belt
The police officer spat out the racially charged comment while Nicholas followed his instructions and fumbled in his wallet for his driver’s license
‘What? Say that again? Say what you just said,” Nicholas countered in the video, before the officer sighed, “My God. registration and insurance.’
The pair then get into a heated argument, during which Nicholas is heard yelling, “What are we getting killed for?” before the police officer slams his car door and walks away.
“Make sure you stay over there,” the officer later says to Nicholas, who was standing by his car at the time as he checked his information on a police mobile data terminal — the kind of computer equipment traditionally found in squad cars find is.
“Threaten to kill me, yes,” Nicholas replies while filming himself and the cop. “What have you done to me? What do you have against me?”
“You’re going to be famous. You’re going to be famous though,” he adds later in the video. ‘Look at him. Has nothing against me, dresses me up and threatens to shoot me. Threatens to kill me. We’re going to court, man.”
‘What? Say that again? Say what you just said,” Nicholas said to the officer after the triggering comment. The policeman sighs, “My God. Registration and Insurance” and slams Nicholas the door before returning to his police motorcycle
After the incident, Nicholas later told NBC Miami that he filmed the escalation because he feared for his life.
“I was scared, I was scared. I didn’t think my life would make it,” he told the local outlet on Monday.
“When he asked me for my license, open the door, I started recording. I was looking for my things, my driver’s license because I didn’t see my wallet. I was looking for my wallet and it wasn’t my car, it was my mother’s car and I didn’t know where the registration was, I was looking, looking. He would get angry.’
In response, Miami-Dade Police Department interim director George A. Perez released a statement saying he had launched an investigation into internal affairs after being alerted by cyber detectives about Nicholas’ TikTok video was.
“It’s the very conclusion that bothers me,” Perez said, adding that he also saw 31 minutes of bodycam footage of the unidentified officer.
South Florida Police Benevolent Association President Steadman Stahl told the Miami Herald that he would like to see the full police camera of the escalation before passing judgment.
He also refuses to accept that the police officer’s comment had any racist connotation.
Instead, he believes the officer was trying to convey that not wearing a seat belt could potentially kill Nicholas.
“Every day people die because they didn’t buckle up,” Stahl said.
“You’re going to be famous. You’re going to be famous,” the officer later sneered, checking his information on the local police system. The officer was later assigned to desk duty after footage of the incident was reviewed by other Miami-Dade Police personnel
Nicolas ended up getting a ticket for not carrying his seat bed and not having a proper number plate and insurance. At the time of the traffic stop, he was also driving with his driver’s license revoked.
The officer did not arrest Nicholas, nor was his car towed away. A relative of the family later came to pick up Nicholas’ car.
Nicolas informed police about the incident on Monday and interacted with officers before filing an official complaint. He claims that police bodycam footage will eventually show that he treated the officer with respect throughout the traffic stop.
As of Tuesday, Miami-Dade Police have still not released footage of the incident.