*When a Lakewood, Florida doctor showed up late at the Orlando airport for an early morning flight to Philadelphia this past Thursday, he didn’t expect it to turn out to be an interesting observation into police use of force and the dangerous white privilege.
According to the New York Times, when Dr. Jeffrey Epstein was told by American Airlines that he arrived too late at the gate to board the plane for his scheduled flight, he became upset and began berating the employees, which resulted in police being called.
When officers arrived, Epstein began taunting them and demanding that they either find him another flight or arrest him. The officers decided to curb his white privilege and arrested him.
Scroll up and watch the moment go down via the clip above.
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According to an arrest affidavit obtained by WESH, Epstein was charged with battery on a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest, trespassing after a warning and disorderly conduct.
The encounter was captured on cell phone video and shows him ranting loudly at police before they tackle him to the ground.
“Do you know how to de-escalate things, genius? Do you have training genius?” he asks one of the officers.
“Wanna test me?”
When Epstein announces, “Come arrest me or give me a flight,” the officers move in to handcuff him. Of course, he resists while whining: “Do not hurt me. Do not be rough with me, a**hole.”
Epstein then falls down, holding his hands tightly to his chest and yelling, “Look at them! They’re going to beat me up! Don’t beat me up, you mother f*ckers!”
As officers continue to struggle with him, he yells out, “Oh my god! They are treating me like a f*cking black person!”
The video ends with officers threatening to pepper spray Epstein, which the Times reports eventually happened.
David J. Johns, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, told the Times, “It’s clear that Dr. Epstein stood firmly in his privilege, taunting the officers. He was condescending. He was rude. Those are all things that black people could never think to do to a police officer and remain standing and or breathing.”
As Orlando airport officers tried cuffing him, Lakeland Dr. Jeffrey Epstein screamed that they were treating him “like a (expletive) black person.” https://t.co/d0Tq0nN3pQ
— tbt* (@tbtnewspaper) August 17, 2018
In an interview with WESH after the incident, Epstein said his reaction was purposeful to teach American Airlines about customer service and school the police how to de-escalate a situation.
“If you’re going to do this to a white doctor, who’s 59-years-old, for doing nothing, then why would black people trust you?” he said.
“I’m a conservative Republican, I’m a Trump guy. But until the police fix this problem, I don’t blame black people for being upset when they get arrested,” Epstein continued.
“I was no danger. I was being loud because I wanted everyone to see. I wanted everything to be out in the open. Big companies have to take care of their customers, and when they call the cops in, they got to deescalate, not escalate,” he added.
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