Controversial Omar Scott Arrest Sparks Outrage

Hoards of people are claiming Omar Scott was wrongfully arrested. Fellow protesters are saying he was tased by police, even though he was cooperating. What happened? We have compiled videos of the arrest but how can we know the full truth without police body camera footage? The short answer is that we won’t, St. Pete Police Department has only recently started testing body cameras. For now, it is the word of law enforcement against Mr. Scott and the witnesses. Can we trust both side to give objective testimony?

Here is another video of the arrest:

As you can imagine, St. Pete Police Department has a different view of the events:

It sounds like the police officers were not sure what the devices were, and feared the worst. They were fireworks but police refered to them as “incendiary devices” and “mortars”, while citizens called them “fireworks.” Were fears overblown, or justified? Either way there is clearly a huge disconnect. Fellow protesters claim the fireworks were for a celebration they had planned after the protests. Was Omar using the fireworks during the protests? That will be an important question to answer. If there were police body cameras, we would probably know the answers to many of these questions. Why did St. Pete PD wait so long to start using body cameras?

Either way, someone was setting of fireworks/mortars/incindiary devices. Who was it?

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