Police Protest Update: Hundreds Ambush Tampa Police; Chief Says Officers 'Can't Win'

The chief of the Tampa Police Department said in a press conference Monday (June 22) that his officers feel "they can’t win," following a violent ambush by an angry mob.

The Tampa police responded to a call about a shooting on Saturday night, only to end up facing hundreds of people ready to pounce on them. According to Fox News, the crowd had the officers surrounded, and some threw glass and bottles at them. However, the police still tried to find the victim of the gunshot amid the mob, Chief Brian Dugan said.

"It’s an ambush. I have no other way to describe it," Dugan said during the press conference. "When there are that many people out there and clearly no one had been shot. It was just a setup to get the cops there."

Aerial footage showed how the cops were cornered by hundreds of people, prompting Dugan to order police officers from New Tampa to South Tampa to respond. After about a hundred cops arrived, the crowd dispersed. As per the police, two of the cops sustained injuries and one person was arrested.

"No one is listening," Dugan said. "Any justified action is getting twisted."

Dugan said that they are in a very tough spot as law enforcers who are trying to manage a crowd of protesters.

"If we show up to people who are just merely exercising their First Amendment rights, it turns into a clash, and police are the bad guys. But we also now have people who are complaining about the lack of a police presence at these protests,” he added.

The chief stated that his men are worn down from the protests, which are going on for weeks now, across the country. The media scrutiny of cops is also not helping, even as some officers have tried to defuse the tension by keeping their distance from the protesters.

However, Dugan said that the efforts they’ve made to avoid violence and tension against the protesters were apparently not sustainable.

"The police, we always have everyone’s back. Nobody has ours right now," the chief said. "Right now, the officers feel like they can’t win. And I would have to agree with them," he further stated.