California Congresswoman Maxine Waters parked her SUV to check on the welfare of a black man being detained by sheriff’s deputies in Los Angeles County, according to bystander video published on Facebook.
“They stopped a brother, so I stopped to see what they were doing,” the Democratic U.S. representative said in the video posted over the weekend by Facebook user Marva Brown.
“They said I’m in the wrong place and they’re gonna give me a ticket,” she said, referring to her SUV parked near the intersection of West 108th Street and South Vermont Avenue, within her district.
“That’s OK, as long as I watch them,” she said, referring to the deputies.
She turned to walk back toward a deputy when a woman shouted, “Gotta do what you gotta do! Make sure!”
“I will,” Waters, 81, responded.
Attempts to reach Brown were not immediately successful Monday.
Waters has been outspoken on the issue of police brutality and has worked to ban the use of chokeholds during arrests.
She recently told TMZ she believes the Minneapolis police officer who knelt on the neck of George Floyd for nearly nine minutes before Floyd died got a thrill from the use of force.
“I believe sometimes some of these officers leave home thinking, ‘I’m going to get me one today.’ And I think this is his one,” she recently told TMZ.
“He didn’t care whether or not anybody was photographing him,” she said of ex-officer Derek Chauvin.
