NJ prison guard in George Floyd reenactment video suspended
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A New Jersey prison guard who came under fire for taking part in a reenactment of the death of George Floyd has been suspended from work after a video of the act circulated online, officials said.
The corrections officer, whose name was not released, was reportedly one of the people caught on video participating in a Black Lives Matter counter-protest in which one man knelt on another person's neck, imitating the moments leading up to 46-year-old Floyd’s death.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The video has since garnered tens of thousands of social media views. It shows protesters marching along a street Monday in Franklin Township, chanting “George Floyd!” and “Black Lives Matter!”
The footage, filmed by someone marching, then shows a man kneeling on the neck of another person shouting unintelligibly back at protesters, who yell back.
WARNING: THIS VIDEO CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES AND EXPLICIT LANGUAGE
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Two more men are standing nearby and one of them is filming on a cellphone, while a woman stands further behind them.
It's unknown which of the people in the video works as a prison guard.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Floyd, a black man, died after he was pinned to the pavement May 25 by a white Minneapolis police officer who put his knee on Floyd's neck for several minutes, even after Floyd stopped responding. Protests have been held in cities and towns around the world calling for an end to police brutality and systemic racism.
The New Jersey Department of Corrections released a statement on Tuesday afternoon that said they were made aware that one of its officers participated in the filming of a “hateful and disappointing video that mocked the killing of George Floyd.”
“The individual has been suspended from their post and banned from NJDOC facilities pending a thorough and expedited investigation,” the statement said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, condemned the stunt Tuesday night on Twitter, saying the state won't “let the actions of a few distract from our progress toward dismantling systemic racism.”
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Another person in the video is a FedEx employee who has since been suspended, a company spokesman told The Courier Post.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Associated Press contributed to this report.