A Miami police officer who was filmed slapping a woman in the face for saying he was acting “white” won’t face assault charges, Law And Crime reported Tuesday citing The Miami Herald.
The incident took place at the Miami International Airport after officers were called to the scene where the woman, Paris Anderson, was allegedly acting out when a gate agent kept her off of a flight back home to Chicago because “she was belligerent and intoxicated,” authorities said. Minutes later she was struck by officer Antonio Clemente Rodriguez for telling him he was “acting white” while being black.
The police department initially relieved Rodriguez of duty and moved to fire him, but the South Florida Police Benevolent Association opposed it, and the case ended in arbitration. Rodriguez then retired and got back pay.
Prosecutors with the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office made a decision to not file charges against officer Antonio Clemente Rodriguez back on October 1, according to the report.
Meanwhile, they decided to charge Anderson with felony battery of a law-enforcement officer, arguing that she was the aggressor by getting in his face, taunting him, and could have touched her forehead to his chin. Prosecutors later dropped that case, the report says.
Even so, the state continued to blame her for the incident. Prosecutor Sandra Miller-Batiste wrote in the new memo that Rodriguez had “no duty to retreat,” and that it was not unreasonable for him to think that hitting Anderson was necessary to protect himself, the report says.
Watch footage of the incident below.
#BREAKING: @MiamiDadePD cop hits woman at Miami International Airport @iflymia #BecauseMiami pic.twitter.com/KnAVipZKtb
— Billy Corben (@BillyCorben) July 2, 2020
