A White man in Minnesota assaulted a Menard's store employee, as well as a Hutchinson police officer, on Wednesday.
The man went to a Menard's store and was told to wear a mask by one of the store's employees.
The man not only refused to wear a mask, but he proceeded to strike the employee with a 2x4 wooden board.
The police were called in response. They caught the man in a parking lot at a nearby Walmart.
The man violently resisted arrest and assaulted a police officer in the process.
A video of the incident surfaced online, taken by an onlooker across the parking lot.
In the video, the perpetrator was already in his white pick-up truck, presumably blocked in by two police cruisers and an unidentified man holding a shotgun.
One officer was standing on the running board of the truck, leaning into the driver's side window. It's unclear from the video if the officer was trying to arrest the man or if he was speaking to him about what happened.
Moments later, the white truck began to drive erratically to try to leave the scene. The driver hit the police cruiser parked behind him and scraped the one in front of him before speeding off.
The police officer who was leaning through the driver's window appeared to be stuck there. He was still hanging onto the side of the truck while all of this happened.
When the truck raced out of the camera's shot, the police officer was still hanging onto the side. No shots were fired at the driver by any of the officers on scene.
You can watch the video here:
What remains confusing about this act of defiance, failure to comply and assault on an officer was the restraint all the police officers displayed.
Other than the man on the scene with a shotgun, who appeared to simply hold it and not brandish it, there were no other displays of a gun or taser during the entire incident.
Would this have been the case if the man had been of another race or ethnicity? Years of statistical facts say the answer is a resounding "yes."
Twitter actively discussed the inconsistent response by the police officers.
Some pointed out this man definitely did not "comply" with the police, which is a common rebuttal to the assaults and deaths of Black and brown people by law enforcement.
Others said it was a matter of whether a police officer "valued" the assailant's life or not.
Some said this was the perfect example of White privilege.
Additional information has not yet been released, including whether or not the man was arrested, his identity, or if any police officers sustained injuries.
@IrnaEnglish/X
