A TikToker has gone viral after posting a video of their experience with a police officer. After being pulled over for allegedly not wearing a seatbelt, user Nyah (@therealnyahh_) says that a police officer pulled a gun on her and the car’s passenger.
In the now-viral video, Nyah films herself speaking with the police. The interaction is dramatic, escalating into yelling on multiple occasions. According to Nyah, the officer approached the car with his gun already drawn, despite her claim that the car did not contain any illicit substances and had all proper documentation.
Her first video currently has over 9.2 million views.
@therealnyahh_ #Blm #weareone ♬ original sound – Nyahh Bruhh
The video begins after their interaction has already begun.
After a comment from Nyah, the officer can be heard screaming, “What are you going to do? What?”
Nyah then asks that she be monitored by someone who is not the aforementioned officer. “He’s getting aggressive with me, and I’m scared,” Nyah says as she begins crying.
This results in another argument between her and the officer. At one point, Nyah says that she just wants to “make sure I make it home alive.”
“You should really get an Oscar for the acting job that you’re putting on right now,” the officer responds. “Relax.”
Nyah is taken aback by this, answering the officer while continuing to cry.
“Acting?” Nyah says. “You should know what’s going on! It’s your people!” The officer in question is Black.
After the officer leaves, Nyah addresses the camera directly.
“Yesterday I [saw] four white officers attack a Black dude, and I literally posted it on TikTok,” she recalls. “This is what you go through for being Black…You have a firearm out because we weren’t ‘wearing seatbelts.’”
In her follow-up video, she says pulling them over for the stated reason of unbuckled seatbelts doesn’t make sense, given the number of cars and officers that eventually showed up on the scene and their behavior after they arrived.
“He had a gun in my face,” she adds in the original video. “That’s sad, that these people think that because they have badges they can talk to us any kind of way. I have freedom of speech. I have my rights.”
At the end of the video, Nyah receives each officer’s name and badge number.
In a follow-up, Nyah offers further clarification and an update on the situation.
@therealnyahh_ Replying to @yukways ♬ original sound – Nyahh Bruhh
“I thought I was going to die,” she says in the update. “I cry every time I watch the recording.”
In this video, she says that she is interested in pursuing legal action but does not currently have the funds to do so. She did, however, make a complaint to the police department.
She also reveals that the original video is 14 minutes long, which she cut down to remove personal details. She then says that the officers in the video checked her car without a warrant.
“I don’t know if it’s true, but I read that if you don’t have any visible firearms or drugs or whatever the case may be, [and] you don’t consent, they can’t check your car,” she says. “But they didn’t ask for my consent. They just went through my car. I was kind of like, ‘hey, don’t you need a warrant?’ and they were like, ‘no,’ and they kind of just kept going through my car.”
According to FindLaw, police may execute a warrantless search if “the officer reasonably believes a search is necessary for their own protection (a hidden weapon, for example).” As one officer claims that Nyah’s passenger was “concealing his right hand from [their] view,” this is likely enough of an excuse to conduct a search.
On TikTok, viewers supported Nyah in the comments.
“You need to sue and press charges,” one commenter wrote.
“A traffic stop should not require a firearm,” a second user noted.
“He should not have argued with her seeing how upset she is,” a third stated. “He is there to protect and serve. Why would he try and make her feel worse ?”
We’ve reached out to Nyah via Instagram DM. The Daily Dot was unable to immediately contact the police department for comment, as it is unclear where the incident took place.
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