Police officer’s highly effective TikTok on Daunte Wright goes viral

A US police officer demonstrated the “big difference” between a gun and a taser in a viral TikTok video and described how difficult it is to confuse the two items in an officer’s arsenal after Daunte Wright’s death.

The video, posted from the account of a guy named Brian B, had roughly 6 million views and 1.4 million likes before the account was deleted after going viral and sparking an extensive online conversation.

The officer, who appears in his police uniform in the Tiktok video, can be seen loading his belt with both a taser and a pistol before typing the pistol as “dominant” and taser as “not so dominant”.

“Big weight difference folks – I don’t see how we can mistake a taser for a gun or a gun for a taser,” he said in the video before sitting down.

“If you’re in the heat of the moment doing something like that, you shouldn’t be doing this job.”

He went on to say that “no one likes a bad cop less than a good cop,” and an officer doesn’t need to pull out a gun quickly or Taser thinks everyone is a threat.

“I will not risk my life to fix your stupidity and restore the peace with my public that I only serve because of your stupid actions,” he said.

“It doesn’t make sense. Ninety-nine percent of our work is communication. You don’t have to be quick to get a gun or a taser out of someone and believe that everyone is a threat.”

The video is in response to Wright’s death after he was shot dead by now ex-police officer Kim Potter in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center during a traffic obstruction.

Ms. Potter, who served as a veteran for 26 years, was charged with second degree manslaughter against Wright, 20. Former Police Chief Tim Gannon, who also resigned after the incident, alleged she accidentally fired her gun and used her taser instead.

Ms. Potter’s gun was on the right side of her service belt and her taser on the left at the time of the incident, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said after investigating the belt, CNN reported.

Washington County’s attorney Pete Orput’s press release also states that the taser is yellow in color with a black stripe in a straight position, meaning that Ms. Potter could have used her left hand to pull the taser out.

According to the Brooklyn Center Police Department manual, all three gun models – Glock 17, 19, and 26 – weigh significantly more than a taser. While Glocks have a safety trigger, Tasers don’t.

The shooting took place about 10 miles from the courtroom on April 11, where former officer Derek Chauvin is being tried on the death of George Floyd. Wright’s death sparked protests across Minnesota for almost a week.

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