A white cop has been placed on restricted duty Thursday after video surfaced showing him tackling and arresting a black woman who had called police to report her child had been attacked.
The 6-minute, profanity-laced clip posted on Facebook shows the exchange between the woman, Jacqueline Craig, and an unidentified police officer from the Fort Worth Police Department. The cop was responding to Craig’s call to police that a white neighbor had just grabbed her son by the neck for ignoring his order for the 7-year-old boy to pick up a piece of garbage on the ground.
“He defied him, so that’s why he did it,” Craig is heard telling the officer. “So I have a problem with that. My son is 7 years old. You don’t have the right to grab him, choke him.”
The straight-faced cop asks only: “Why don’t you teach your son not to litter?”
And when Craig, 46, says she doesn’t believe a littering charge rationalizes the alleged attack, the officer is heard asking one more question: “Why not?”
“Because it don’t,” the stunned Craig replies.
The startling exchange prompted the woman behind the camera — Craig’s cousin Porsha Craver — to remind the officer that she was recording the incident.
Craig tells the cop he “pissed [her] off” and argues that the officer has no idea what she teaches her son at home. The cop then threatens to put her under arrest.
“If you keep yelling at me, you’re going to piss me off and I’m going to take you to jail,” the officer says.
Sensing trouble, Craig’s 15-year-old daughter suddenly tries to intervene and push her mother away, the video shows. But the cop tosses the teen to the side and pulls his Taser. It was not immediately clear if he used the weapon, but Craig, her daughter and their cousin, Brea Hymond, were all arrested, the Star-Telegram reported.
The video of the wild encounter had more than 50,000 shares and was viewed more than 1 million times by Thursday afternoon.
Craig, according to jail records, was arrested for resisting arrest. She also had outstanding traffic warrants, the Star-Telegram reports. Hymond was arrested for resisting arrest and interfering with public duty. Craig’s daughter was released early Thursday, according to attorney Lee Merritt, who said the incident was mishandled from the outset.
Merritt said the officer should have arrested the unidentified white neighbor once he admitted to assaulting Craig’s son.
“At that point, the culprit should have been placed under arrest,” Merritt told The Post. “Instead, he was allowed to explain his rationale while the mother was questioned as to why she did not train her son better.”
Merritt said he wants all charges against his clients dropped, as well as charges filed against the neighbor. He said the Fort Worth Police Department should also remove the officer from the force and investigate possible criminal charges. He said catching the ordeal on video was key.
“I’ve seen it play out a lot different when it’s a citizen’s word against that of an officer,” Merritt told The Post. “And so, when there’s an absence of video, things like this tend to get swept under the rug. I don’t believe this is indicative of a few bad cops; this is a broken system.”
The Fort Worth Police Department said the department learned of the video late Wednesday and then interviewed two of the three people arrested in the video within two hours. The unidentified officer has been placed on restricted duty status pending the outcome of an investigation, according to a statement released Thursday.
“Since this is an internal investigation, state law limits the information that may be released, including the officer’s body cam footage,” the statement reads. “The Fort Worth Police Department enjoys a close relationship with our citizens; one of transparency, mutual trust and respect. The Fort Worth Police Department expects every officer to treat persons they encounter with that same trust, respect and courtesy.”
The statement continued: “We acknowledge that the initial appearance of the video may raise serious questions. We ask that our investigators are given the time and opportunity to thoroughly examine this incident and to submit their findings.”
At the end of the video, the officer threatens to put cuffs on Craver.
“Your phone is evidence,” the officer replies, as another scuffle ensues and the phone drops to the ground. “Let go of the phone. You touch me and you’re going to jail!”