A Repeating Sequence

On April 8, a video was trending on social media from Norfolk, Virginia. The video consisted of a capital lieutenant named Caron Nazario, an African American-Latino man getting pepper-sprayed numerous times by the police at a gas station. During the video, Nazario is shown innocently keeping his arms up so he can demonstrate that he was not a threat. Despite this and repeatedly trying to cooperate with the police, Nazario was forced to feel the sting from the pepper spray.

The video and actions from the police caused anger among the African American community, the Hispanic community, and the Army. Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Grinston showed his support for Nazario through a plethora of tweets. "He represented himself and our Army well through his calm, professional response to the situation – I'm very proud of him." 

There are instances in the video where you can see a police officer watching his fellow colleague embarrass Nazario in a trembled manner. Even though it had seemed that he was conscious of the racist treatment Nazario was going through, he stood still and held his position.

While watching what happened, the actions of the police officer reminded me of what happened with George Floyd last year around this time. This is because as Floyd was being murdered by our very own eyes, policemen around the scene stood there and watched. The repeating of events of such an evil manner is happening right in front of the nation, which shows that unless major action has taken place, these events will continue happening.

Recently, a report had been published that Lazario had filed a one million dollar lawsuit against the police force after what had happened to him. Eyes will follow what happens furthermore in the battle between Caron Nazario and the police department.