Hanover, Pennsylvania’s Jay McDougle apologizes after reenacting George Floyd’s arrest

Jay Randolph McDougle, 37, of Hanover, York County, Pennsylvania, United States loves guitars and tattoos. He has a swastika tattoo.

Aside from Hanover, McDougle also lived in other parts of Pennsylvania including Dover, Spring Grove and East Berlin. He also previously lived in Kenton, Ohio, USA.

In 2002, McDougle graduated from high school in Kenton. He works at Utz Snacks in Hanover.

McDougle is friends with Jacob “Jake” Wiatrak, 27, of Hanover. They are both not convinced that George Floyd died because of how he was arrested by former Minneapolis Police Department officers  Derek Michael Chauvin, Tou Nmn Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Kiernan Lane on May 25, 2020 in Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota, USA.

On August 7, 2020, McDougle and Wiatrak attended a Black Lives Matter protest on Hanover Square in Hanover as counter-protesters. To prove that Floyd did not die in the hands of former Minneapolis Police Department officers, McDougle knelt on the neck of Wiatrak, who was lying face down on the ground, in front of the protesters.

On August 11, 2020, The York Dispatch obtained a statement from McDougle. He said, “I apologize if anything we did was taken the wrong way.”

“It wasn’t about race,” McDougle continued. He added that he and Wiatrak went to the Black Lives Matter protest “to have a civil discussion about the signs”.

Somewhere along the way during the protest, according to McDougle, Wiatrak “wanted to point out that kneeling on the back of the neck would not lead to asphyxiation.” For the Utz Snacks employee, people have different opinions but his and Wiatrak’s “just happened to be put on video and twisted to fit the narrative” to make them look like racist.