Yet another disturbing example of police brutality has been caught on film. A black woman in Fort Worth, Texas called the police to report that a white man choked her seven-year-old son. Instead of helping the woman who called the police, the white police officer who showed up became confrontational and then proceeded to violently arrest the woman and two teenaged girls, one of whom filmed the incident on Facebook Live.
According to the New York Daily News, the 46-year-old mother, Jacqueline Craig, explained to the officer that a white man had tried to choke her son because the boy "threw some paper" and didn't pick it up.
In the video, the bearded white man who allegedly choked the child is standing in the background. Craig explained to the man and the officer: "My son is seven years old. You don’t have the right to grab him, choke him for no paper that he threw. What you should have done because we have been living here for years... you could have came to me. You don’t put your hands on my son."
Given that he was just told that a seven-year-old boy was choked, you'd hope the Fort Worth Police officer would help. Instead, he questioned Craig's parenting, asking, "Why don’t you teach your son not to litter?"
"He can’t prove to me that my son littered," Craig explained. She then pointed out what should've been obvious: "But it doesn’t matter if he did or didn’t. He didn’t have to put his hands on him." But the officer instead replied, "Why not?"
Understandably, the officer's treatment upset Craig, who became increasingly frustrated in the video. She started yelling and acknowledged to the officer, "You pissed me off!" The officer responded by saying if she kept pissing him off, he'd take her to jail.
At that point, Craig's teenaged daughter stepped between the two and tried to push her mother away in an attempt to deescalate the situation. But instead of calming the situation, the officer lost it.
He pulled out his Taser and started brutally grabbing the mother and her daughters. He slammed Craig to the ground, put his knee into her back, and pointed his Taser at the young women watching the police brutality. After subduing Craig, he then slammed Craig's daughter to the ground and handcuffed her as well. The officer then took the two handcuffed women to his SUV.
The woman who was filming the video screamed profanities at the police officer throughout the video. After the officer put the two other women into his SUV, he then lunged at the woman who was filming, knocking her phone out of her hand and telling her, "OK, you're going to jail too."
Craig, her 19-year-old daughter Brea Hymond, and her 15-year-old daughter were arrested and taken to jail, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
The Fort Worth Police Department is aware of the situation and is investigating. They have refused to identify the police officer at this point, but wrote in a statement, "The involved officer has been placed on restricted duty status by the Chief of Police pending the outcome of the internal investigation."
Craig, who had outstanding warrants for traffic violations in Irving, Texas, is being held on those charges in addition to the latest charges of resisting arrest and failing to identify as a fugitive, according to Fox 4. Hymond was charged with resisting arrest and interfering with public duties.
The white man who allegedly choked the seven-year-old boy was not arrested.
