Elk Grove PD: Officer wore ‘unauthorized’ blue flag mask in viral traffic stop video
The Elk Grove Police Department released video Thursday from an incident that went viral on social media earlier this week showing a verbal confrontation involving an officer, a driver she pulled over and the driver’s mother.
The incident stemmed from a Sunday evening traffic stop, initiated by an officer who observed a car roll through a stop sign in an Elk Grove neighborhood. The driver pulled over on the left side of the road a short distance from the intersection, video shows, in front of the driveway at his mother’s house.
The mother came outside and talked to her son. The driver exited his vehicle and stayed outside the vehicle at his mother’s instruction. The officer exited her vehicle and approached the two of them, video shows.
What followed was a roughly 30-minute verbal confrontation between the two sides. As the officer told the driver, standing in the corner of his mother’s driveway, he is being detained, the mother started streaming the incident live to Facebook. She pointed out the officer’s hand is on her holster, accused her of racial profiling and called 911 to report the officer was holding her family hostage.
The driver said and did little at the outset of the encounter, as his outraged mother stepped in and took offense to the officer asking if his son is on parole or probation, calling this question harassment. She vehemently insists that the officer, who has her son’s license and registration information in hand, run the information herself to see if he is on probation and then write the traffic ticket.
Instead, the officer indicated she won’t give the ticket until a supervisor arrived as backup.
The mother’s husband also exited the home, and both of them quickly began recording the encounter with their cellphones. The mother stated repeatedly her son “will not be the next hashtag,” claiming multiple times that the involved officer wanted the driver to “make the wrong move” so she can shoot him.
Video posted by the mother, Stacey Harvey-Slocum, has circulated widely online since Sunday. As of Thursday, it’s been viewed on Facebook more than 4 million times, reposted to numerous pages.
‘Blue Lives Matter’ mask sparks outrage, breaks PD rules
Part of the controversy centered on the fact that the officer, identified in body-worn and vehicle dashboard camera videos as Officer Misty Johnson, wore a “Blue Lives Matter” mask.
The viral video from the Harvey-Slocum’s perspective shows Johnson in a bandanna-style, dark-blue face covering patterned with a black-and-white American flag that has a lone blue stripe, sometimes alternatively called a “thin blue line” flag, indicative of a pro-law enforcement stance. She’s also wearing blue-tinted sunglasses.
The thin blue line flag has become a controversial symbol; opponents of the flag in recent years have said it comes in direct opposition to the Black Lives Matter movement, which centers on ending social injustice and police brutality.
The Elk Grove Police Department rebuked the officer’s wearing of a non-neutral mask in a news release late Wednesday, adding that the rest of the incident will be investigated by an “impartial and independent” outside entity.
“One of the issues that arose from several viewers of the video was the unauthorized cloth face covering worn by the officer during this interaction,” the department wrote. “Recognizing that one of our core responsibilities is to project neutrality and pay deference to others’ perspectives; in this instance we fell short of that responsibility.”
The department says it provided guidance in early April on what type of cloth face coverings are allowed, and sent a department-wide directive Monday reiterating that all officers “shall wear a solid color cloth face covering” without patterns while in the field. Masks have been mandatory across California, including for law enforcement, since mid-June due to the coronavirus pandemic.”
Police Chief Timothy Albright and the department say they released the body and dash video in an effort to be transparent.
What police, viral videos show
The confrontation never escalated beyond a verbal one — the two parties stood still throughout almost the entire incident, with the family at the bottom of the driveway and Johnson feet away on the sidewalk — but the discussion grew increasingly tense before other officers arrived.
Harvey-Slocum alleged repeatedly Johnson has her hand on her gun throughout the encounter. The officer’s hand is indeed on top of her holster, the viral video shows. Johnson turns her body at one point to demonstrate that her hand is near the gun but not touching its handle or trigger.
When Johnson initially asked the driver if he is on probation, Harvey-Slocum interjected and tells him not to answer, the officer’s bodycam video showed. Johnson said she needs him to answer for himself. Harvey-Slocum told her son to refuse to answer the question, which he did.
The mother asked why Johnson is calling for backup on a traffic stop, and Johnson responds that traffic stops “are one of the most dangerous situations” for law enforcement.
“You’re making this dangerous. You’re escalating it,” Harvey-Slocum said.
Early in the encounter, Harvey-Slocum told Johnson the officer is “the one with the guns and stuff” and that her, her son and her husband were the ones that should be fearing for their lives.
“I have no idea if you have ‘guns and stuff’ too,” Johnson said.
After a few minutes of Harvey-Slocum demanding the officer simply write the traffic ticket for her son, Johnson asked of the mother: “Do you realize how violent you’re being right now?”
The woman, who’ds raised her voice to a shout but hardly moved, reacted in disbelief, and Johnson then clarified: “You’re being verbally aggressive.”
The exchange heated up. Multiple times, Harvey-Slocum called Johnson “trigger happy,” and said the officer is waiting for them “to make the wrong move” so she can shoot them. She commented on Johnson’s blue flag mask and on her tattoos, the video shows.
She also accused Johnson of profiling her son because he is Black, saying it’s the reason she’s asking about his parole or probation status. Johnson replied that she asks this of everyone she stops. The woman turned to her son and said, “This is what I tell you about white people. Don’t trust them.”
“And it’s a damn shame that we can’t trust the police,” she continued. “... They think they’re gonna kill my baby? Not on my watch.”
Minutes later, Harvey-Slocum called 911 and reported Johnson was holding them hostage. Johnson repeatedly reminded the mother and her husband that they are free to leave, though her son remained detained.
“We are in fear for our lives right now,” Harvey-Slocum told dispatch.
The brief 911 call ends as backup arrives. A handful of EGPD officers arrive at the scene, allowing Johnson to return to her vehicle and write the ticket, the videos showed. The mother told one of the arriving officers she wants to file a formal complaint.
Eventually, Johnson gave the driver his ticket, he signed it and she left the scene a few minutes later after telling another officer her perspective of the incident. She said the driver pulled over onto the wrong side of the street after she’d used her vehicle’s PA system to tell him not to; that the mother was being verbally aggressive; and, “outnumbered,” Johnson decided to call for backup before proceeding with the traffic stop.
Mom reacts on social media
Elk Grove Police didn’t identify the driver, his mother or the mother’s husband by name, but their faces are not blurred in the video.
The driver’s mother, Harvey-Slocum, has been vocal on social media, including demands for an apology from the department and calls for Johnson to be fired.
In EGPD’s statement, the department says Albright, the chief, “began a dialogue with family members” and invited them to meet in person. The statement also said Johnson has volunteered to meet with the family “and be a part of the process.”
Harvey-Slocum wrote Tuesday on Facebook that her family had productive conversations with Albright and with Elk Grove Mayor Steve Ly, taking photos with the latter, and that they were scheduled to meet with Johnson on Wednesday.
But later Tuesday, Harvey-Slocum wrote her son “woke up furious,” that the meeting with the officer was canceled and the family is ”taking the legal route” instead.
This story was originally published September 17, 2020 at 1:42 PM.
