Warning: Explicit content
When Baltimore mom Toya Graham turned on the evening news and saw her son on TV throwing rocks at cops in the streets during Monday’s riots, her instincts took over — her maternal instincts.
“I was shocked. I was angry, because you never want to see your child out there doing that,” Graham told CBS News of the moment she spotted her son, Michael, 16. “At that point, I just lost it.”
So Graham raced to the scene, smacked some sense into Michael and half-dragged, half-shamed him back home. Her actions, caught on video that has since gone viral, earned her praise on social media Tuesday as “Mom of the Year.”
“He knew he was in trouble,” Graham told CBS. “He said, ‘When I seen you,’ he said, ‘Ma, my instinct was to run.’
“I’m a no-tolerant mother. Everybody that knows me, know I don’t play that,” she said.
Michael, she added, is not immune to the lures of street life, and she has grounded him in the past to keep him off the streets.
“There’s some days that I’ll shield him in the house just so he won’t go outside, and I know that I can’t do that for the rest of my life,” she said in the brief interview. “Is he a perfect boy? No he’s not. But he’s mine!”
When asked if hero moms like herself could help curb violence in the city, Graham said, “I think so,” but most parents are just too busy working.
“A lot of mothers have to provide for their children,” she said. “As parents, we just have to follow through to make sure that’s where they’re supposed to be at.”
“Knock the HELL outta him to beat sense back into that skull! Hush with the ‘dont abuse ur kid’ crap THATS A CARING MOM,” IamSantwon wrote.
“I applaud her! She probably saved his life. She was probably very scared for him. You can’t fault her for that,” tweeted LSergentanis.
“To the mom whom grabbed her child from throwing rocks in Baltimore; Awesome display of a great, loving mom. We need more like you. Thanks:),” added Juliearmendare1.
“I think we need more parents like the mom that was smacking her son, in front of everyone, for rioting in Baltimore!” added Finan The Great.
The video shows Graham angrily confronting her son — who was wearing all black — a hoodie and matching winter face mask covering most of his features — and she unleashed an expletive-filled torrent.
“You want to be out here doing this dumb s–t?” the furious mom screamed, repeatedly slapping the much taller youth on the side of the head with an open hand.
“Take that f–king mask off,” she yelled as she connected with a series of right hands.
“Get the f–k over here. Get over here now, do you hear what I say?!” she said as she followed him to their car.
In another video, the youth can be seen skulking off with his still-angry mom stalking along behind him as an onlooker gives a running commentary.
“He was prepared for this s–t. He got his all black on, got the gloves, face mask, and look who beside him, his mother! Goddamn!” the woman said, laughing.
The pair watched news coverage of the riots when they got home, she told CBS, and she hoped he had learned his lesson.
“And by him seeing everything what’s going on, I just hope — I’m not sure, but I hope — that he understands the seriousness of what was going on last night,” she said.
Michael, she added, was bombarded with messages on Facebook praising his mom.
“Friends and everybody making comments and saying you know, you shouldn’t be mad at your mother, you should give her a hug,” said Graham.
She was also concerned that he could have been hurt in a confrontation with the police.
Even Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts sang her praises.
“If you saw in one scene, you had a mother who grabbed their child who had a hood on his head and she started smacking him on the head because she was so embarrassed. I wish I had more parents who took charge of their kids tonight,” Batts said.
Baltimore police had tweeted out their own plea Monday, asking parents to make sure their kids were safely at home.
“Several juveniles are part of these aggressive groups. WE ARE ASKING ALL PARENTS TO LOCATE THEIR CHILDREN AND BRING THEM HOME,” the department wrote.