This is crazy!
A Providence police officer who was running for state office as a Republican dropped out of the race on Saturday amid a criminal investigation for allegedly punching his Democratic opponent in the face during an abortion protest.
Rhode Island Political Cooperative Chairwoman Jennifer Rourke was among those who spoke at a Friday night protest outside the State House following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to end the right to abortion. As tensions escalated among protesters and counterprotesters, Rourke, who is running as a Democrat for a state Senate seat in Warwick, R.I., found herself not far from her Republican opponent, Jeann Lugo, a Providence police officer who was off-duty.
Video posted to social media shows people exchanging punches in a chaotic scene. During the fighting, a man who Rourke says is Lugo is seen punching her in the face.
“Last night, after speaking at our Roe rally, my Republican opponent — a police officer — violently attacked me,” Rourke wrote on Twitter. “This is what it is to be a Black woman running for office. I won’t give up.”
Lugo, a three-year veteran of the department, has been placed on administrative leave and is now under a criminal investigation, Lindsay Lague, a Rhode Island Public Safety spokeswoman, told The Washington Post. Rourke told the Providence Journal that she is seeking to press charges for assault.
“The Providence Police Department is criminally investigating the behavior of an off duty Providence Police Officer last evening during a protest at the Rhode Island State House where a female subject was assaulted,” Lague said in a statement.
As video of the incident went viral Saturday, Lugo announced that he was suspending his campaign for the state Senate.
Cops, man. They just can’t help attacking Black people.