Karina Stevens/Facebook
February 16, 2022, 9:26 am
Video of an altercation between two teenagers at a mall in New Jersey has people pointing out just how blatant racial bias is among police officers.
Featured Video Hide
A group of teens were sitting around at the Bridgewater Commons mall when a Black eighth-grader and a white high schooler started arguing. The white teen kept shoving his finger in the younger boy’s face until he finally pushed it away. The high schooler responded by shoving him, and things escalated from there.
Both threw punches, and the white teen tackled the other boy onto a couch, then later threw him onto the floor. He was on top of him when two police officers showed up. They pulled the white kid off and sat him down on a couch while one officer then tackled the Black teen — already on the ground — and pulled his hands behind his back.
Advertisement Hide
The officer who had so briefly attended to the white teen moved over to kneel on the Black teen, who wasn’t resisting, as they handcuffed him. The white teen was allowed to sit on the couch unrestrained, even getting up and standing over the cops to watch at one point.
With such a large group of teens surrounding them, phones were out and you can hear protests as they’re clearly confused why the police are targeting the younger boy.
This happened at Bridgewater Mall in New Jersey. Two kids get into a fight and the police show up. They pull the white kid to the side and proceed to handcuff and arrest the BLACK child only. This young man’s name is Z’kye. He’s just 14. He was kept in cuffs for 30 minutes,
. pic.twitter.com/GqUlMG7oqp
— Charles Cox
(@closequarters92) February 15, 2022
The middle schooler later told ABC7 that the altercation started because the older teen was picking on his friend, a 7th grader.
“My friend was arguing with the older kid and so I kind of just jumped into a fight, and since he’s older, he was on top of me and he’s bigger,” he said. “I was just confused and mad about it.”
But even the white teen was thrown by the police officers’ actions, telling PIX11, “I knew it was wrong, and I knew there was gonna be problems when they did that. They didn’t go for me.”
Outrage has swirled within the community and online, as there doesn’t seem to be any way to even reach for justification for the officers’ actions in the moment — Kyle wasn’t the one on top in the fight, didn’t resist, and there were no weapons in sight.
The local prosecutor’s office has said the incident is being referred to internal affairs for investigation and has asked anyone present to contact them.
Both teens have reportedly been banned from the mall for three years.
*First Published: February 16, 2022, 9:26 am
0 Comments