The incident took place at around 8:14 p.m. on June 19.
In the video, two white officers have a tough time explaining to Ayala, who is not only Central Florida's state attorney but arguably the most recognizable state attorney in Florida, why she had been stopped.
"Thank you, your tag didn't come back, never seen that before, but we're good now. We ran the tag, I've never seen it before with a Florida tag, it didn't come back to anything, so that's the reason for the stop."It's unclear exactly why the video surfaced, or who requested it, but it appears that it first showed up on Florida National News, which poses the question of whether or not this should be considered racial profiling.
Ayala then asks, "what was the tag run for?" which the officer then struggles to explain.
"Oh we run tags through all the time, whether it's a traffic light and that sort stuff, that's how we figure out if cars are stolen and that sort of thing," he said, as Ayala sits in her car, clearly annoyed.
"Also, the windows are really dark, I don't have a tint measure but that's another reason for the stop."
Ayala then asks for the officers' names, saying, "Do you guys have cards on you?"
The officers don't have cards, so their names are written down on a piece of paper.
Shouts of racial profiling also are coming from Shaun King, senior justice writer for the New York Daily News, who shared the video yesterday from his social media accounts.
Ayala has received quite a bit of negative attention, to say the least, since announcing that she would not pursue the death penalty for accused cop killer Markieth Loyd, or for any other cases for that matter.Watch as @OrlandoPolice struggle to give one reasonable explanation for why they just pulled over the only Black state's attorney in Florida pic.twitter.com/Dth5VW1wcB
— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) July 11, 2017
Gov. Rick Scott has since removed her from nearly two dozen death-penalty cases, including the high-profile case of Loyd. Ayala is now suing Scott in federal and state courts over the matter.
Ayala responded to questions from Orlando Weekly with the following statement:
I was pulled over by Orlando Police department on June 19th in Parramore after leaving FAMU Law School, where I taught in the evening. After public records request, the video was released by the Orlando Police Department. Since its release, the video has had more than 2 million views and produced a flood of misinformation. Including the filing of a lawsuit which is not true.The Orlando Police Department has also issued a statement:
To be clear, I violated no laws. The license plate, while confidential was and remains properly registered. The tint was in no way a violation of Florida law. Although the traffic stop appears to be consistent with Florida law. My goal is to have a constructive and mutually respectful relationship between law enforcement and the community.
I look forward to sitting down to have an open dialogue with the Chief of Orlando Police Department regarding how this incident impacts that goal.
-State Attorney Ayala
The Orlando Police Department allows the running of tags for official business only, and this is done routinely on patrol.
In regards to the video, which was released by the Orlando Police Department last month, the officers stated the tag did not come back as registered to any vehicle. As you can see in the video, the window tint was dark, and officers would not have been able to tell who, or how many people, were in the vehicle.
No complaint has been filed in reference to this traffic stop.
