Residents in a South Florida community have responded with mixed reactions after its vice-mayor stopped a council meeting to apologize for a video where she is seen sassing a police officer. Body-cam footage was leaked earlier this month showing Pompano Beach Vice Mayor Beverly Perkins’ April encounter with a Fort Lauderdale police officer after being pulled over for allegedly speeding. In the video, Perkins can be heard telling the officer he should “find something better to [expletive] do.” She was accused by critics of being “rude, disrespectful and unprofessional” as the video went viral earlier this month, though supporters have described the controversy as a political attack, questioning why the months-old encounter suddenly surfaced as elections near. During a city council meeting on Tuesday, vice mayor Perkins interrupted the meeting to apologize and read an open statement: “This was a traffic stop for alleged speeding. Not a criminal matter,” she said. “If any exchange on my part, in the conversation with the police officer, is perceived as being disrespectful, I do apologize,” she said to residents and officials who were in attendance. Barbara Stern, an attorney representing Fort Lauderdale Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 31, appeared at the meeting to slam Perkins, directly telling her that her actions in the video “were deplorable and unbecoming of an elected official.”
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