As the Washington Post reported, on Wednesday, December 21, 2016, mother Jacqueline Craig called the Fort Worth Police Department (FWPD) to report an assault. A neighbor had grabbed her seven-year-old son by the neck, allegedly choking the child. The mother told the officer that the neighbor had grabbed her child and choked him after he accused the child of throwing paper and the boy refused to pick it up.
This should be a no-brainer, right? Acknowledge that the neighbor should not have touched a child who wasn’t his and maybe get him to apologize. However, the mom and son were black, and the neighbor and cop were white, so that’s not what happened.
This Is What Racism Looks Like
The officer did not understand that the mother had reason to object to someone handling her child. He said she should teach her kids not to litter. Mom insisted that whether he littered or not, the neighbor should have come to her rather than disciplining her child. Not surprisingly, Ms. Craig was angry. She raised her voice.
She insisted that the neighbor, who was standing right there, had no right to touch her child. The officer’s response:
“Why not?”
At that point, someone off camera reminded the officer that he was on camera. As Ms. Craig continued trying to persuade the officer that the neighbor had no right to touch her son, she was becoming angrier. The officer asked why she was yelling at him.
“If you yell at me you’ll piss me off, I’m going to take you to jail.”
Arrests And Assault By White Cop
Ms. Craig’s 15-year-old daughter, who was not named in the Post story, stepped between Ms. Craig and the officer and tried to push her mother away. At that point, the officer grabbed the daughter and pushed or threw her away from her mother.
He grabbed Ms. Craig, wrestled her to the ground, and handcuffed her, then did the same to the 15-year-old. The video also shows the officer pointing his stun gun with one hand while holding an arrestee down with the other.
Meanwhile, Craig’s 19-year-old daughter, Brea Hymond, continued to record and stream the events live to Facebook while commenting on what she saw. The officer turned to her and said:
“You’re going to jail, too.”
He took her phone, ending the transmission. Because it was already on Facebook, friends shared it until it went viral.
According to the women’s attorney, S. Lee Merritt of Dallas, both Craig and Hymond were charged with resisting arrest, interference, and failure to provide identification on demand.
Jacqueline Craig & Brea Hymond are being held on the typical charges following police misconduct 1) resisting 2) interference 3) failure/ID
— S. Lee Merritt, Esq. (@MeritLaw) December 22, 2016
FWPD’s Response
Someone brought the video to the attention of the FWPD Wednesday evening. Thursday morning, the police department issued a release, also shared on Twitter. It stated that the unnamed officer had been placed on restricted duty pending an Internal Affairs investigation and that it would not release information while the investigation continued.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ1Z204Mg34
Featured image via Fusion.