The Lubbock Professional Police Association released a statement Monday afternoon in reaction to a viral video of a Lubbock police officer.
The video shows a police officer chasing a man before the officer falls on a wet sidewalk. The officer could be seen getting squirted by water guns in the 2600 block of East Baylor Street.
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Below is the full statement from the LPPA:
The Lubbock Professional Police Association was very disappointed to see the videos circulating on social media that depict people spraying our members with water. We were even more disappointed to learn that this incident is being painted as “kids having fun.”
In reality, our members were responding to a call for service where residential roadways were blocked and had become impassable and the residents requested law enforcement intervention.
Our members responded and attempted to handle the situation in a professional and courteous manner, even ignoring being sprayed with water guns. However, the situation was escalated by numerous adults on-scene who refused the officer’s requests to move the vehicle and began throwing buckets full of water and trash cans at officers.
This was not the innocent fun of children but a blatant and intentional disregard of the law and requests to comply with the law.
The incident has damaged City property, and therefore taxpayer property, and those involved should be held accountable. Those involved were not just children having fun but were instead adults that were breaking State law by blocking a roadway and failing to clear it when asked to do so.
This conduct was highly inappropriate, egregious, and in some cases may have been illegal.
Our members work everyday to foster open and honest communication and relations throughout the various communities we work in, and are a part of.
However, in this instance, the potentially criminal conduct of several individuals in this incident took what could have been a playful and lighthearted interaction and turned it into something else entirely.
We are grateful that our members were not injured and look forward to a thorough investigation.
