The Fairfax County Police Chief is defending officers who used force during the arrest of a reporter for cursing at an Annandale parade on Saturday.

“I’m standing before you to defend the lawful actions of my police officers enforcing the law to protect our community and a parade,” said Chief Edwin Roessler at a press conference on Monday evening.

The incident in question was captured on video and published by Shareblue, the Democratic-aligned news site owned by Media Matters founder David Brock, which employs reporter Mike Stark.

Stark has been following Ed Gillespie around the commonwealth during his rather stealthy campaign as the Republican candidate for Virginia governor. The video begins with Stark and an officer talking as the parade is about to begin.

Roessler said that the officer was trying to get Stark back on the sidewalk.

Per an account from Shareblue, Stark was filming Gillespie’s campaign vehicle as it arrived to the parade:

A Fairfax County Mason District police officer demanded that Stark cease filming the vehicle and move back farther than the 20-yard distance already separating him from the vehicle. He was accompanied by a woman who had raised an objection to Stark’s presence at a Gillespie campaign event just the evening prior.

In the video, Stark says that he’s “a reporter doing my job,” when another officer tells him that if he curses again he’ll be arrested, to which Stark responds, “Fuck this.”

Roessler says the video shows that “the profanity continues—that is called disorderly conduct. We are law enforcement officers. It’s our role, our mission, our profession, to protect our community. There were children and families at this event.”

The Virginia criminal code classifies “profane swearing” in public as a Class 4 misdemeanor.

Stark initially complies as officers move to arrest him. Roessler says that Stark became a “passive resister,” which means he wasn’t using force but was still avoiding arrest, when the officer “used a takedown technique to control the gentleman.”

The video shows one of the officers lifting Stark’s leg to take him to the ground. At least four more officers approach to assist in the arrest. Stark continues to say he cannot give them his hand because their weight is on top of them.

Roessler said that the officer “has reasonable fear that this person could harm me or someone else,” due in part to the fact that Stark was wearing a hoodie that could conceal a weapon.

Ultimately, Stark was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, and released on a $3,000 bond. According to Shareblue, he returned that evening to the campaign trail to ask Gillespie a question during a public event, and the candidate ignored him.

Roessler said that Fairfax County Police investigates all use-of-force incidents, and he chose to deploy the department’s Internal Affairs bureau to the scene to interview witnesses and officers. Stark will also get to talk to them if he chooses.

The involved officers are currently on full-duty status. Roessler said he did not see any department violations that would warrant taking them off-duty, though the investigation into the incident is ongoing.