Anger over US police racial 'bias' in mall fight video
Outrage has been stirred by a video showing a police officer in the United States aggressively tackling a Black teenager during a dispute with a white man.
The state governor condemned what seemed to be "racially uneven treatment" after seeing a video of US police violently tackling a Black teenager during a dispute with a young white male.
The video shows a fistfight between two teens at a shopping mall in Bridgewater, New Jersey, a suburb of New York City.
Two police officers come after about 10 seconds and violently separate the teenagers.
The young white man, on the other hand, is merely forced to sit on a sofa as the Black youngster is violently tossed to the ground by the police officer.
MALL FIGHT CONTROVERSY: Authorities are now investigating the use of force by two police officers during a New Jersey mall fight between two teens as video of the incident surfaced, raising questions of racial bias in policing. pic.twitter.com/F696foQkMX
— The Truth Patriot🇺🇸 (@USAlight3) February 17, 2022
A policewoman is then seen placing her knee on the young Black man's back as he lies flat on his stomach, handcuffed by a male cop.
"They basically tackle me to the ground and then the one -- the male officer put his knee in my back and then he starts putting me in cuffs," the Black teen, who gave his name as Kye, told ABC.
"And then the female officer came over and put her knee on my upper back too and started helping putting cuffs on me."
The rest of the arrest of the Black teenager is not shown in the video, nor what happened to the young white male who was not detained.
On Facebook, Bridgewater Township police recognized that the video had "upset members of our community" and promised an internal inquiry. Governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey slammed the police response.
"Although an investigation is still gathering the facts about this incident, I'm deeply disturbed by what appears to be racially disparate treatment in this video," he tweeted.