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The Miami-Dade police officer who slapped an angry woman at Miami International Airport last year won’t face criminal prosecution — and was allowed to retire with back pay for the time he was booted from the force.
The June 2020 confrontation between the woman and Officer Antonio Clemente Rodriguez was captured on video that went viral during the summer of protests against police brutality sparked by the killing of George Floyd. The incident was one of several rough arrests in recent years in Miami-Dade County, and renewed scrutiny on so-called “distraction strikes” employed by cops.
The revelation that Rodriguez won’t be prosecuted was made in a final memo released by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office on Tuesday. The news emerged as a county police officer on Monday got into a brawl with unruly passengers at MIA, again captured on widely circulated videos.