On March 9th, 2023, a video was actively circulated on Facebook, in which an unknown man can be seen honking and then placing a police officer’s hat and clothes on top of the car, which is met with applause and cheers from the surrounding demonstrators in Tbilisi. The video was published by a number of media outlets, including “Palitra News”, “Reforma TV,” and “Mix.Metronome.Ge”, as well as Facebook pages (1,2,3) and accounts (1,2,3,4,5). According to the attached description, the mentioned person is a police officer who took off his uniform and joined the demonstrators. Identical information was also distributed in the group Best of the Best, with the description: “Mtavari Arkhi: Policeman took off his uniform and joined the protestors.” Currently, similar information cannot be found on the “Mtavari Arkhi’s” website or Facebook page.
A video showing a man putting a policeman’s hat and clothes on a car is being circulated with a false description. According to the person featured in the video, he is not a police officer. While protecting the activists from the police at the rally, the uniform accidentally fell into his hands, after which he took it to throw away.
The person depicted in the circulated video confirmed in a comment to “Myth Detector” that he is not a police officer. On March 9th, he also published a post on his Facebook page on this topic, in which he explained that his police uniform fell on him during a fight between the police and activists while he was at the rally, and he took the uniform off the car because he was going to throw it away.
The author of the post also explains that he did not say anywhere that he is a police officer and that the police officers have already prepared a protocol for him on the mentioned issue.
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