New Jersey police are under fire for their response to a fist fight after a Black eighth grader was pinned to the ground and handcuffed while a white teen involved in the weekend mall scuffle was left seated on a couch.
The fight, which took place at Bridgewater Commons in Bridgewater Township, New Jersey, on Saturday was captured on video and prompted a review of the officers’ conduct as well as strong words from the governor.
Video footage of the incident shows a group of young people gathered in a seating area at the mall, and two boys, one white and one Black, standing up in a verbal altercation.
The Black teen and his mother talked about the fight and the police response with NBC New York. The news station only identified the teen as Kye and his mother as Eboné.
Kye, 14, said the dispute started when he stood up to the other boy, who is older, for picking on his friend.
“He was kind of saying like ‘You’re a little kid, you’re my little pet’ and stuff like that,” Kye said.
The confrontation escalated with the two throwing punches at each other as onlookers shouted, according to the video.
After several seconds of punching, two uniformed officers with the Bridgewater Police Department ran onto the scene and pulled the two apart.
One officer pushed the white teen into a seated position on the couch, according to the footage.
Meanwhile, Kye, already on the ground, was pinned down onto his stomach by a male officer, with the officer’s knee appearing to be on the teen’s back. A female officer then helped, placing her knee near the back of Kye’s neck as they put him in handcuffs, according to the clip.
A person in the background is heard saying, “Yo, it’s cause he’s Black. Racially motivated.”
The white teen appeared to be left alone and at one point stood up and looked over the scene as the two officers restrained Kye.
“I was like calm, because I knew not to be scared, just stay calm and not move and do what they tell me to do,” Kye said on being restrained by the officers.
His mother, Eboné, was outraged by the incident.
“It doesn’t take two cops to hold a 14-year-old boy down who’s not resisting, while the other boy is just kind of going free and still going off on my son. It just doesn’t make sense,” she said to NBC New York.
Kye has been banned from the mall for three years, the news station reported. Troy Fischer, senior general manager of the mall, told NJ Advance Media that the other teen was also banned from the mall for three years.
“It’s not fair that we are constantly having to fear the cops,” Eboné said. “I’m just glad it happened where there were a whole bunch of eyes on the situation, cause I don’t know what would have happened.”
The Bridgewater Police Department addressed the incident Monday in a statement on its Facebook page.
“We recognize that this video has made members of our community upset and are calling for an internal affairs investigation,” according to the statement.
Police are asking anyone with video of the incident to share it with the department.
The agency has requested that the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office conduct an independent review of the officers’ conduct.
Bridgewater Township Mayor Matthew Moench on Tuesday acknowledged the video, and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy expressed his concern.
The mayor noted the rules governing use of force by police officers in New Jersey are codified by the Office of the Attorney General.
“I am completely confident that the Prosecutor’s review will be impartial, objective and thorough,” Moench said. “I want to thank the public for its patience in refraining from jumping to conclusions while an investigation is pending.”
In his statement, Murphy said: “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. We’re committed to increasing trust between law enforcement and the people they serve.”
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
