Police ram video not from Chinese COVID-19 protest

Editor’s Note: The video in this story contains graphic content.

After the Chinese government announced enforcement of new restrictions “Zero-COVID” measuresThousands of protesters have gathered in major Chinese cities.

In response to the growing number of protests, China’s ruling Communtst Party promised to “take decisive action” at the street demonstrations.

A video posted to Twitter on November 27 claims to show a police vehicle crashing into a crowd of protesters on the street. The tweet with the videowhich VERIFY translated from Chinese using Google Translate, says, “Shanghai police are killing.” The video had more than 570,000 views.

Another tweet shared the video said: “No one is reporting this. Police brutality in China running over protesters.”

Was a video taken during the protests in China showing police ramming into a crowd on the street?

No, the video was recorded in Tacoma, Washington in 2021.

Although the Chinese government has increased its police and military presence to prevent street demonstrations from increasing, this video was not recorded in China.

It was actually shot in Tacoma, Washington, in January 2021 and shows a police officer driving into a crowd gathered for a street race. VERIFY was able to find the original video by searching individual frames from the viral video in reverse image search.

A tweet containing the video posted on January 23, 2021 says it was filmed at the intersection of 9th Street and Pacific Avenue.

Both videos feature the same people and vehicles. VERIFY also confirmed the location through with street view from Google Maps.

VERIFY partner station KING 5 covered the story in January 2021 and reported that the officer driving the patrol car has not been charged in the incident.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

More from VERIFY: No, Chinese state media didn’t blur the crowds at the World Cup as viral tweets have suggested