Protesters rally outside Montgomery County police station after use of racial slur

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At least 50 protesters chanted and marched to a Montgomery County police station in Silver Spring, Maryland, from a nearby library Monday night, and rallied outside.

Some carried signs with slogans that included “Stop Racial Profiling,” “Black People Are Not ‘Suspicious!” and “Black Lives Matter.”

The demonstration was a response to videos recorded last week, of a white officer using a racial slur.

The videos show four young black men being detained and questioned by several Montgomery County police officers who were responding to trespassing report at a McDonald’s.

One of the men said to officers, “You [n-words] came to write a whole bunch of paper work.”

Then an unidentified person is heard asking, “What did you say, sir?”

Not long after, a white female officer uses the slur.

Police have called the incident disturbing, and it is still under investigation.

Among the speakers at the protest was Montgomery County Council Member Will Jawando, who said police officers are expected to interact with residents in a respectful, courteous manner.

“That’s not what happened here just a few days ago,” he added.

Jawando said he just met with two of the black men seen in the videos.

“When you hear these young men tell their story, one of whom actually is a recent graduate from a county-funded program, Latin-American Youth Center, when you hear them talk about their disappointment, their fear, their lack of understanding of why they, as paying customers of McDonald’s where they got their breakfast a couple times a week before being picked up to go to their job, why they were hassled like they have been before, and written trespass orders and detained and demeaned and talked down to.”

Jawando also has a problem with what the restaurant is allowing.

“McDonald’s has … allowed the police to use trespass authority anytime they wanted, and they don’t have to ask if anyone’s being destructive or anything, they can just stop the people and go in. Where else is that happening?”

Jawando is asking for the release of all body camera video from every officer involved in last week’s incident. So far only video from the accused officer has been released.

He also wants to see all of the trespassing orders issued in the county in the last two years.