As the George Floyd protests intensify across the globe, social media is abuzz with videos of innovative ways of protest. The latest one is of a police man who has been set on fire by the protestors. The video begins with a police officer getting on a bike. A protestor pours something from a bottle onto the police officer’s back and sets it on fire. The police officer gets off the bike and tries to put out the fire by rolling on the ground as other cops and protestors try to help him.
This video is doing rounds on social media claiming that this is incident took place in Italy.
Fact Check-
We started our investigation by running a keyword search on YouTube which led us to a video published by The Telegraph on 5th June 2020 with the headline “Police officer set on fire during protests in Mexico.” According to the report a police officer was set a ablaze by a protester during demonstrations over the death of a man in police custody in Mexico. The incident took place during protests in the city of Guadalajara, in the state of Jalisco. Locals gathered to ask for justice in the case of Giovanni Lopez, 30, who died after his arrest. In the video, recorded by journalist Mario Marlo, officers in helmets can be seen facing up to protesters when one of the officers gets onto his motorbike. A protester then runs up behind him and pours flammable liquid onto the officer before setting him ablaze. The officer goes up in flames along with the seat of his bike and he falls to the ground. The Governor of Jalisco, Enrique Alfaro, confirmed that the assaulted officer was injured in the protest along with five other officers. Twenty-six people were arrested while three patrol cars were reportedly burnt out. According to the Guardian, Mexicans are protesting after a construction worker, Giovanni Lopez, was allegedly beaten to death by police officers in town of Ixtlahuacán de Los Membrillos near Guadalajara on May 4th allegedly for not wearing a mask.
Next, while closely observing the video we found that there is a building named “C. UNIVERSITARIO AZTECA” which can be seen in the image below.
We located this building through Google Maps and found that it is situated in Mexico where the incident took place on 349, Ave Juarez in Guadalajara. Below you can see the Street view of the area where the incident took place. Thus, it is clear that the video is from Mexico and not Italy.
Conclusion: Fact Crescendo found the above mentioned post to be False. The viral video where a police man was set ablaze by protestors in originally from Mexico where people were protesting against the death of Giovanni Lopez. This video is not from Italy and has nothing to do the recent protests related to the George Floyd incident.
Title:Video of policeman set on fire from Mexico is being circulated as and incident from Italy.
Fact Check By: Aavya RayResult: False
