A Florida politician apologized for cursing at a cop during an April traffic stop on Tuesday — while supporters called the backlash against her racist.
Pompano Beach Vice Mayor Beverly Perkins was pulled over by a Fort Lauderdale officer in April for allegedly going 15 to 20 miles over the speed limit in two separate zones.
Despite being let off with a warning, Perkins lashed out at the cop before pulling away in her Audi SUV.
“Find something better to f—— to do,” Perkins said.
After footage of the exchange emerged last week, local police groups ripped Perkins.
“We suggest you apologize and then sign up for some ride alongs to see what [officers] do every day to protect the citizens of our great city,” said Scott Mosely, president of the Fort Lauderdale Fraternal Order of Police.
“If any exchange on my part in the conversation with the police officer is perceived as being disrespectful, then I do apologize,” Perkins said.
Perkins addressed the incident during a raucous Pompano Beach commission meeting Tuesday.
But an attorney for the police union again blasted Perkins at the gathering, asserting that she warned officers during the stop that she had high-ranking deputies on speed dial.
“As an elected official, you are not above the law,” said Barbra Stern, attorney for the police union. “Yet that is exactly how you behaved. … Your behavior following that stop was deplorable and unbecoming of an elected official.”
Perkins had supporters at the commission meeting who ripped the backlash against her as politically and racially motivated.
One attendee told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that she was being unduly critiqued as a “black woman.”
“Don’t do that to our people,” she added.
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