Rep. Maxine Waters intervened when saw Los Angeles law enforcement officers detaining a black man, according to a report.
“They stopped a brother, so I stopped to see what they were doing,” the California Democrat tells a person who recorded the Friday incident on South Vermont Avenue, TMZ reported.
Waters claims that the officers threatened her with a ticket for pulling over the way she did. “They said I’m in the wrong place and that they’re going to give me a ticket,” she adds about the LA County sheriff’s deputies. “That’s OK as long as I watch them.”
A woman is heard on the video saying: “Gotta’ do what you gotta’ do! Make sure!”
“I will,” Waters says as she walks toward a female officer who watched her from nearby.
“Bye, Maxine!” a man then shouts.
Waters, 81, was driving in her Los Angeles district when pulled over.
Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA 43) making sure the brother pulled over is having his rights protected! Queen! pic.twitter.com/sT9Mk3Tz7X
— 𝐄𝐱𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐨𝐩𝐞 (@exavierpope) July 19, 2020
The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Office later told DailyMail.com that the motorist had been pulled over as part of a burglary investigation.
They said Waters initially pulled her vehicle up to the traffic stop and began ‘yelling at the deputies’. The congresswoman was told she was obstructing traffic and to pull over.
She was later released with a warning after she refused to sign a citation for the possible violation, the spokesperson said. The man who was pulled over was found to be in possession of a metal pipe, however, he also was released.
