An off-duty police officer is under investigation after he slammed a woman to the ground over her refusal to wear a face mask, according to Complex.

The officer, who has yet to be identified, also works as a security guard for a Birmingham, Alabama, Walmart where a woman became upset after she was asked by a store employee to put on a face mask before entering. Sergeant Rod Mauldin said the woman refused and began yelling expletives at customers and employees, NBC News reports.

In a video of the incident, the officer is seen attempting to detain her. He then grabs her between the legs, picks her up and slams her to the ground.


Mauldin said the officer used a “takedown measure” to detain the woman because of “other threat factors in the store.”

The woman was not injured and refused medical treatment, according to NBC News. She was arrested for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest among other charges. A use-of-force investigation was launched, per Birmingham police department protocol.

Although Gov. Kay Ivey has relaxed Alabama’s stay-at-home measures, which include a recommendation to wear face masks in public, a Birmingham ordinance requires citizens to wear facial coverings, according to the National Law Review. That specific Walmart also requires customers to wear a mask, per TMZ.

“The Birmingham Police Department has maintained a consistent community-oriented educational approach to the surrounding circumstances of COVID-19,” a Birmingham police spokesperson told TMZ. “Our records indicate we have not issued any citations or made arrests as it relates to the shelter in place ordinance or the face-covering ordinance. We have made a valiant effort to gain voluntary compliance and we will continue to work cohesively with the community.”

Police officers around the country have been under fire for their treatment of people not wearing masks in public or violating social distancing orders.

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA) changed its policy requiring passengers to wear face masks while onboard after a video surfaced of officers forcibly removing a man from a bus for not wearing a facial covering, as Blavity previously reported.

After facing backlash on social media, SEPTA released a statement saying face masks were highly recommended but not required.

But apparent discrimination in the enforcement of social distancing and facial coverings is not unique to Alabama or Pennsylvania.

Officers throughout New York City have made at least 120 arrests and have issued about 500 summonses for social distance violations between March 16 and May 5, as Blavity previously reported. Of those arrested, 68% were Black people and 24% were Hispanic.

Many people are calling for the police department to release demographic data of arrests.

On Thursday, the Brooklyn district attorney’s office released statistics of social distancing enforcement in the borough, noting that the department arrested 40 people for violating orders between March 17 and May 4. Black people constituted 35 of those arrested, while four were Hispanic and one person was white. More than a third of the 40 arrests were made in Brownsville, which is a predominantly Black neighborhood.

A number of arrests have been posted to social media, and officers have been criticized for using excessive or unnecessary force. According to The New York Times, one officer, who is now under investigation, punched a man in the face while breaking up a cookout on a Brooklyn stoop. Another dispute in the same neighborhood resulted in a man being knocked unconscious.

Over the weekend, New York police officer Francisco Garcia tackled a bystander and repeatedly slapped and punched him, as Blavity previously reported. Garcia put his knee in Donni Wright’s neck while detaining him after arresting two other people who he believed were not standing with enough distance between them.

The incident occurred the same day photos were taken of officers in the West Village handing masks to park-goers who were not abiding by social distancing orders.

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