The Fort Worth Texas Police Department is under fire after a viral video released Wednesday night showed an officer assaulting and arresting a 46-year-old woman who had called for help after her 7 year old son was choked by a neighbour. According to the video shared on Facebook, the mother, Jacqueline Craig called 911 and complained that her neighbour had choked her son after accusing him of littering.
The officer arrived and questioned the neighbor, when he was done with the neighbour who choked the 7 year old child, he then spoke with the mother who grew agitated when the cop insinuated that her son deserved to be punished for littering.The mother told the officer:
'I came around here and asked him. I said, "Why did you put your hands on my son?" He said, "Oh, he threw some paper and I told him to pick it up".' 'He said he defied him and that's why he did it … you don't have the right to choke somebody's son. My son is seven years old, you don't have the right to grab him and choke him.'The officer responded to Craig by saying: 'Why don't you teach your son not to litter?'
The mother got upset at the officer for insinuating that her son deserved to be punished for littering and raised her voice at him which got him (the officer) annoyed.
The mother continued:
'He can't prove to me that he did or didn't, but it doesn't matter,' Craig says. 'That doesn't give him the right to put his hands on him.'To which the officer responds, 'Why not?'
Then Craig responds by saying how she raises her son is immaterial and that it did not give anyone the right to harm him.
The officer then asks Craig: 'Why are you yelling?'
Craig answered by telling the officer that she is 'pissed off' at his insinuation that her son deserved to be choked because he littered.
'The officer then said:
"If you keep yelling at me, you're going to piss me off and I'm going take you to jail."
Watch the video below:
At that point, the woman's 19-year-old daughter, Brea Hymond tried to get between her mother and the officer, but the officer pushed Hymond out of the way and grabs Craig, pushes her to the ground, and presses a Taser gun to her back.
The officer then points the Taser as Hymond. He gets up and arrests Hymond, who is visibly shaken by the ordeal. The officer escorts Craig and Hymond to a nearby police car and sits them in the back seat. They were booked on charges of resisting arrest, according to her lawyer.
The person recording the video kept yelling at the police officer and called him obscene names. Then the officer approcached the person and a struggle ensued and that was where the recording ended.Craig's lawyer, Lee Merritt, posted a video on Facebook which he filmed during his trip to the Fort Worth jail in which his client was being held.
He later tweeted a picture of Craig and Hymond, saying that he was working hard to win their release from jail.'Still working hard to secure release of Jacqueline Craig & Brea Hymond,' Merritt tweeted. 'They are in good spirits & appreciate all the support.'
Merritt said that the Fort Worth police department's internal affairs division was looking into the matter.
They released this statement below:
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