Local Police Chief Says ICE Agents Drew Their Guns On One of His Officers: ‘It Has to Stop’

Mark Bruley, the police chief of the city of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, spoke to the press on Tuesday and detailed how a group of ICE agents violated the civil rights of one of his officers, including knocking a phone out of her hand to stop her from recording the encounter.

“Behind me is a bunch of amazing police chiefs that are here in support of a very short but very important message that we want to share with you,” Burley began, adding:

What you won’t hear from any of us today is rhetoric of “abolish ICE” or that there shouldn’t be immigration enforcement. The truth is, immigration enforcement is necessary for national security and for local security. But how it’s done is extremely important. In fact, we have a long history of working exceptionally well with our federal partners, including ICE agents, and we have seen the best of them perform their job extremely well in the past.

With that said, recently—as in the last two weeks—we as a law enforcement community have been receiving endless complaints about civil rights violations in our streets from U.S. citizens. What we’re hearing is they’re being stopped in traffic stops or on the street with no cause and being forced to produce paperwork to determine if they are here legally. As this went on over the past two weeks, we started hearing from our police officers the same complaints, as they felt victimized by this while off duty. Every one of these individuals is a person of color who has had this happen to them.

Bruley then told the story of the female officer’s disturbing encounter, “In Brooklyn Park, one particular officer who shared her story with me was stopped as she passed ICE going down the roadway. When they boxed her in, they demanded her paperwork, of which she’s a U.S. citizen and clearly would not have any paperwork.” He continued:

When she became concerned about the rhetoric and the way she was being treated, she pulled out her phone in an attempt to record the incident. The phone was knocked out of her hands, preventing her from recording it. The officers had their guns drawn during this interaction. And after the officer became so concerned, she was forced to identify herself as a Brooklyn Park police officer in hopes of slowing the incident and de-escalating the situation. The agents then immediately left after hearing this, making no other comments, no other apologies—just got in their vehicles and left.

I wish I could tell you that this was an isolated incident. In fact, many of the chiefs standing behind me have similar incidents with their off-duty officers. This isn’t just important because it happened to off-duty police officers. But what it did do is we know that our officers know what the Constitution is, they know what right and wrong is, and they know when people are being targeted. And that’s what they were. If it is happening to our officers, it pains me to think how many of our community members are falling victim to this every day. It has to stop.

Burely’s remarks quickly went viral on social media and sparked an outcry among viewers concerned with what they heard:

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