The New York City Police Department has issued an ‘officer safety alert’ urging law enforcement officials to be vigilant in response to a Brooklyn man’s online comments invoking ‘cop killings.’
The alert was sent out to service members by the NYPD’s Intelligence Bureau Threat Assessment and Protection Unit on Thursday amid increasingly violent protests in Minneapolis, New York City and cities all over the US demanding justice for George Floyd.
Floyd, a handcuffed African-American man, died after white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes and ignored his desperate pleas that he could not breathe.
Chauvin was arrested this afternoon and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.
Khaalid Anderson’s tweet referencing cop killings has prompted the NYPD to issue a safety alert warning officers to be vigilant
Anderson also wrote on Facebook about an hour after firing off the tweet
Anderson (pictured) lives in Brooklyn. He has not been charged with any crime
According to the NYPD alert, which was first reported on by investigative journalist Shawn Cohen in Twitter and picked up by Fox News, Khaalid Anderson, from Brooklyn, allegedly wrote on social media, ‘Cop killings are gonna be a thing…somebody gotta die.’
The memo goes on to say there ‘there is currently no probable cause for arrest. MOS (Members of Service) are urged to exercise caution and to remain vigilant. If they should come into contact with this individual, take appropriate action and contact the Intelligence Bureau Threat Assessment Unit.’
A search of Anderson’s Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts has revealed that the Brooklyn resident have posted multiple messages over the past two days discussing police killings.
In an expletive-filled tweet thread posted early Wednesday morning, Anderson wrote in part: ‘Cop killings is gonna become a thing. We need neighborhood snipers for the police. We need people to pull up on Black Panther time again. I know we’ll send a message and get some s*** done.
The NYPD in its memo noted that there is no probable cause to arrest the man who wrote about cop killings. Anderson stressed on Instagram that he never said he was going to do anything
He addressed the incident on Facebook on Friday, saying that police have been looking for him
‘Authorities gotta die tho.. I can’t see another way. Somebody humble me tho.. Ion wanna do bad when I can do better.’
He struck a similar note in a Facebook post about an hour later, writing: ‘Cop killings are gonna become a thing and I’m here for it.
‘Sucks to say but I feel like it’s gotta come to this in order for things to change. Please humble me if you got a different answer but I feel like somebody gotta die. I don’t see another way unless we pull up on some Black Panther s***. But even then, I feel like somebody still gotta get popped prematurely to let them know “accidents” happen and s*** ain’t a game no mo [sic]. We gotta go to war bout respect.’
The news comes after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was caught on video pressing his knee into the neck of a handcuffed black man. George Floyd (right) later died
Floyd’s death sparked widespread and often violent protests in Minneapolis and other cities across the US. Pictured: State Patrol Police officers block a road on the fourth day of protest on Friday in Minneapolis
As news of the NYPD alert spread on social media, Anderson directly addressed it on multiple platforms.
‘Lol I never said I was gonna do anything lol but I can’t control the world and the people that you officers affect,’ he tweeted this afternoon.
In a status update on Facebook, Anderson claimed that police have repeatedly visited his home looking for him over the past two days, and that they even mistook his roommate for him.
‘I made a tweet about cop killings on Twitter and the laws been on my a** every since lol,’ he wrote.
The NYPD put out the alert the same day as police officers were seen violently breaking up a protest at Union Square in Manhattan.
One officer was caught on video beating a demonstrator with his baton until it broke.
More than a dozen people were arrested after clashing with police officers in the crowded square.
Floyd’s death sparked four days of protests from coast to coast, which culminated with the torching of a police precinct in Minneapolis on Thursday night, which prompted the National Guard to step in an effort to restore order.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Friday acknowledged the ‘abject failure’ of the response to this week’s violent protests and called for swift justice for police involved in Floyd’s death.