The New York City police union chief has told people to stop treating cops "like animals and thugs".
This comes as unrest continues to unfold across the US, as protests - some peaceful, some violent - are calling out the systemic injustices carried out against black people, not least seen by the recent deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor.
Mike O'Meara, the president of the New York Police Benevolent Association, attended a press conference with a large group of police officers behind him and said that the 375 million interactions the police have with the public each year are "overwhelmingly positive".
He said that he had spent the past week reading about how black children are now worried about returning home from school without being murdered by a cop.
Watch O'Meara's impassioned speech below:A frustrated O'Meara said: "What world are we living in? That doesn't happen. It does not happen!
"I am not Derek Chauvin. They are not him," he said of the Minneapolis police officer who arrested George Floyd. "He killed someone. We didn't. We are restrained."
Speaking on behalf of the officers assembled him, he said: "Everybody's trying to shame us. The legislators. The press. Everybody's trying to shame us into being embarrassed of our profession."
Raising his police badge, he said: "You know what? This isn't stained by someone in Minneapolis. It's still got a shine on it, and so do theirs."
O'Meara angrily added: "Stop treating us like animals and thugs, and start treating us with some respect! That's what we're here today to say. We've been left out of the conversation. We've been vilified. It's disgusting."
"We don't condone Minneapolis. We roundly reject what he did as disgusting. It's disgusting! It's not what we do. It's not what police officers do," O'Meara said.
Chauvin, the 19-year police veteran who was recorded kneeling on George Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes, has been charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter over the death of the 46-year-old, and has had his bail set at $1.25 million, per the Independent.
On Tuesday afternoon, Floyd's funeral took place in Houston, Texas.
The press conference comes after a 75-year-old Martin Gugino fell and suffered a head injury at a Black Lives Matter protest after interacting with police officers, with President Trump later tweeting to say that he could have faked the fall.
As well as a call for justice, these ongoing protests are also demanding an end to police brutality and the racism that is so deeply entrenched in America and the western world.
The message is simple: Black lives matter.
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