An Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner in Deanwood denies inciting violence against Metropolitan Police Department officers after tweeting harsh criticisms of officers and saying that “this will be a HOT summer and one of your beloved DC police officers will get hurt.”

Anthony Lorenzo Green, who has been a local commissioner for his neighborhood since January 2017, sent the tweet Wednesday in response to a widely-circulated video showing a violent confrontation between MPD officers and a group of young people on Green Street Southeast.

https://twitter.com/LorenzoANC7C04/status/1128685179931897856

Raw footage of the incident posted by WUSA9 shows the officers were approached by community members as they were peering into unoccupied cars parked on the street. The officers were continuously asked why they were looking into the cars, and eventually an MPD officer knocked a phone out of a man’s hand as he tried to record, and then shoved him backward. The confrontation grew, and three people were arrested for assaulting a police officer, threatening to do bodily harm, and resisting arrest, according to a police report.

An MPD spokesperson told DCist by email that the incident is under review with the Internal Affairs Bureau.

Partial videos of the incident began circulating on social media and earning condemnation from people who felt it was an example of overly aggressive policing, particularly against black communities in Southeast. A Ward 7 teacher, Laura Fuchs, tweeted: “This is NOT acceptable. Not two days ago one of my students came in to class with a sling around his arm because he got ruffed up by the police. He missed several days of school because of this. ENOUGH!”

Green was among those who made his displeasure known. His initial tweet read: “I’m telling you right now, DC. This will be a HOT summer and one of your beloved DC police officers will get hurt. I tell you no lies! I’m not holding people back no more.”

Some people read the tweet as inciting violence. “DC ANC commissioner inciting war against cops,” one person tweeted in response.

The D.C. Police Union released a statement criticizing Green and accusing him of making a “veiled threat.”

“Commissioner Green’s Single Member District (SMD) has suffered more violence than most. He accuses city leaders of neglecting meaningful work to grandstand on social media, but he has ignored our numerous attempts to work with him,” the statement from D.C. Police Union Chairman Stephen Bigelow Jr. reads. “Apparently, he would rather posture and incite violence on social media … If Commissioner Green is unwilling or unable to [work together], he should either step down or be removed from his position.”

WUSA9 was the first to report on Green’s tweets and his denial that they were encouraging violence.

Green says he was not inciting violence—he was actually trying to prevent it. He also disagrees that he has avoided working with the police. He says he can sense that the community is reaching a boiling point, and he was trying to warn police that they may face violence if they don’t change their tactics.

“There are a lot of people, members of our community, who are telling me they’re drawing a line in the sand. They’re tired of being harassed and treated as criminals no matter where they are or what they’re doing,” Green tells DCist. “There are going to be folks who possibly fight back. People are saying they’re tired of being Martin [Luther King Jr.] and they’re going to be Malcolm X. I’m hearing that more and more.”

A report released this week by the ACLU found that, while black residents represent 47 percent of the city’s population, they account for 86 percent of people arrested by D.C. police.

Green points to the violent confrontations that took place last year on Sheriff Road in Deanwood after a controversial stop-and-frisk of several men in front of Nooks Barbershop. He said after that incident, he worked hard to discourage people from acting on their anger toward MPD, and felt he was successful.

“This year, I’m not as hopeful, and it’s going to be difficult to hold people back from acting on the anger and the feelings they have when MPD walks up and puts their hands on individuals,” Green says.