A video showing a bus driver and a Seattle cop in a heated confrontation over who was in the wrong in a traffic incident garnered a lot of reaction online.
TikTok user @ShadwMystique posted two videos of a verbal exchange between the driver and the cop who pulled the bus over.
In the videos, the officer states he was trying to pull the bus driver over, while the driver alleges he was trying to pull over because he thought that the emergency vehicles behind him were attempting to pass the bus.
“You just ran from us. Our lights and sirens are on,” the cop said.
“I pulled over to let you pass and you didn’t pass, so I moved forward to my zone,” the driver explained.
“I was pulling you over,” the cop retorted.
The driver is heard accusing the officer of cutting him off and saying he almost hit him so he honked his horn. The cop reiterates that he didn’t cut him off, but the driver says, “It’s on camera,” indicating that the incident was caught on the bus’s dashcam video.
The cop then demands the driver call his supervisor or another bus or driver to the scene and tells the driver that he could be arrested for “obstructing” and “road rage.”
“How am I obstructing?” the driver questioned.
“Because I’m stopping you,” the cop answered.
“For what? What reason?” the driver asked.
“For the road rage,” the cop responded.
After the driver refuses to give the cop his ID, the officer says they will wait for either backup or the driver’s supervisor to arrive, then apologizes to the passengers for the delay.
The user who posted the videos wrote she was one of two dozen passengers on the bus and said the “driver was completely in the right and the officer had his ego bruised.”
Most people flocked to the comments to question why none of the passengers spoke out against the officer for wasting time and not trying to de-escalate and resolve the situation in a timely fashion.
“Why didn’t the people on the bus confirm what the driver was saying to the officer?” one commenter asked.
“People need to learn to speak up. It’s insane this cop felt comfortable enough to do this with 20+ people on the bus as witnesses, further wasting their time as well,” another person commented.
“We need to hold them accountable for the power trips,” one TikTok user wrote.
