Viral Videos

Florida Basketball Cop Video Goes Viral

Officer Bobby White with the Gainesville Police Department is going viral after his cruiser’s dash cam captured video of his friendly response to a 911 caller’s complaint regarding kids “loudly” playing basketball in the street.

In response to the situation, Officer White decides to join in on the fun and proceeds to shoot some hoops with the group of black teenagers.

While he’s no Michael Jordan, White manages to–with the assistance of a lowered hoop–dunk the ball.

The Gainesville Police Department shared the dash cam footage of White playing ball with the group of teens on social media. The video, which was posted to the Gainesville PD Facebook page on January 21, had racked up over 11 million views by January 23.

By Saturday afternoon, the video had received over 270,000 “likes” and more than 250,000 shares on Facebook.

The police department’s description for the video on Facebook read:

Officer White was recently dispatched to a call of kids playing basketball “loudly” in the streets. In the evening. Having fun. Not committing crimes. Let’s see how he handled it.

At one point in the video, the officer can be heard asking one of the kids in a seemingly rhetorical fashion whether he can “believe someone is calling to complaint about kids playing basketball in the street.”

Can you believe someone is calling to complain about kids playing basketball in the street […] Obviously I don’t have any problem with it.

White also told the teens that he was “glad” they were shooting hoops instead of “starting trouble.”

Glad to see you all doing this and not out there starting trouble.

The video is, according to The Washington Post‘s Marissa Payne, “somewhat familiar” to last year’s viral video of a Washington, D.C. cop engaging in a dance-off with some kids.

While various individuals and organizations shared last year’s dance-off cop video, U.S. President Barack Obama notably shared the video on Twitter along with a message that referred to the cop’s dance-off as a “great example” of cop’s having fun while they keep everyone safe.

What do you think of Officer “the basketball cop” White’s response to the 911 caller’s complaint?

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