Seemingly every week there’s another viral video of people getting into a public spat or altercation that inevitably turns physical. People have a lot of pent-up aggression, it would seem. Perhaps one of the strangest and most inexplicable examples is a recent video of a man getting into it with the mayor of San Jose’s security team while the mayor was recording an interview on the street.


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The man walks past their setup while talking to someone on the phone, swearing all the while, prompting Mayor Matt Mahan to say, “We’re doing an interview sir.” The man then gets annoyed, swearing and getting aggressive with the security guard, telling him, “I will fuckin’ smack you, do you wanna get smacked?” before proceeding to smack him, resulting in a truly ridiculous-looking bitch fight as the man and the security guard tussle for a good couple of minutes, while bystanders, including the mayor, look on in what is probably a mix of horror and confusion, and one aide calls the police.


The man was subsequently arrested, with the San Jose Police Department releasing a self-congratulatory statement about the actions of Mahan’s security officer, who was reportedly a plainclothes San Jose cop, calling him heroic and describing his actions as “a testament to the de-escalation training that makes our officers effective, compassionate and stewards of community trust.”


The president of the NAACP’s San Jose chapter criticized the officer’s actions, however, writing in an email to acting Police Chief Paul Joseph, “Upon viewing the video of the incident, I was troubled by the rapid escalation of the situation into a physical altercation. The officer involved in the altercation did not clearly identify himself as a law enforcement officer, and it appears that there was no legal basis for instructing the pedestrian to move from his location in a public space. The pedestrian’s reaction, although stating a warning, should have been met with a more measured response from the officer, considering the circumstances.”


The man’s bail has been set at $26,000, and he was released on the condition that he stay 300 yards from both Mahan and the officer involved and that he submit to random searches for weapons possession.