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| - Fact Check: Did cops in China run over protestors with cars? This 2021 video is from the US
A video of Chinese police officers has gone viral on social media, with the claim that they killed people while suppressing widespread protests against the country's draconian zero-Covid policies.
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India Today Fact Check
This video is neither recent nor from China. It’s a January 2021 video from the US and shows how a police officer ploughed through a crowd in Tacoma, Washington.
Protests broke out across China over the weekend against the country’s draconian zero-Covid policy. Reportedly, citizens from Beijing to Shanghai to Chengdu took to the streets after a building fire killed ten people in Urumqi, Xinjiang, an area that had been locked down for months. Reports say that the protestors believe the state’s anti-Covid protocols prevented those people from being saved.
According to a Politico report, the government’s response to this mass mobilisation has been to flood the protest zones with thousands of police personnel. Social media has since seen a flurry of photos and videos supposedly showing such protests. One such video was tweeted with the Chinese caption: “Shanghai police kills.” The video shows what looks like a police car running over a bunch of people in a crowded street at night time.
This video was also shared with captions like, “No one is reporting this. Police brutality in China running over protestors.” Archived versions of these posts can be seen here and here.
AFWA, however, found that this video was neither recent nor from China at all. It’s from January 2021 when a police officer in Tacoma, US, ploughed through a crowd.
AFWA Probe
The first thing we noticed was the people in the video were talking in English. This hinted at the fact that the video may not have been from China. Also, under the viral tweet were a bunch of comments that contradicted its claims. One such tweet read, “Bro, this is NOT from Shanghai, this is from 2021 in Tacoma. Stop spreading misinformation.” It linked back to a tweet by Russian state media, Russia Today. This tweet contained a video that looked similar to the viral one. The Russia Today report alongside the video noted that on January 23, 2021, a police SUV was filmed ploughing through a crowd of people and running over at least one person in Tacoma, Washington, in the US.
Subsequently, we looked for news reports on this incident. On MSNBC’s website, we found the same footage. According to the news report, a street race was going on when this happened.
According to an NBC News report from January 24, 2021, the police officer ran over at least one person, who was hospitalised. A crowd of about 100 people and several cars were blocking an intersection when the cops arrived, according to a police statement.
One Tacoma police car was then surrounded by the crowd and the officer inside reportedly struggled to remove himself. This is when the shocking incident seen in the video took place. “People hit the body of the police vehicle and its windows as the officer was stopped in the street,” Tacoma police said. “The officer, fearing for his safety, tried to back up, but was unable to do so because of the crowd.”
Interim Tacoma Police Chief Mike Ake said at the time, “I am concerned that our department is experiencing another use of deadly force incident.”
Thus, it became amply clear that this video was not from China where protests have broken out over the state’s harsh anti-Covid policies.
(With input from Sanjana Saxena)
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