Cop Arrests Woman Who Called Police About Assault on Son

The officer has been placed on restricted duty
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Dec 22, 2016 4:10 PM CST
Texas Officer on Restricted Duty After Videotaped Arrests
Jacqueline Carter is arrested Wednesday after calling police about a man she says choked her 7-year-old son for littering.   (Facebook)

A white Texas police officer was placed on restricted duty Thursday while an internal investigation looks into a videotaped incident showing the officer wrestling a black woman to the ground before arresting her and her two teenage daughters, the AP reports. The Fort Worth officer, whose name hasn't been released, responded to a call for service after Jacqueline Craig argued with a man who she said had physically confronted her 7-year-old son for littering. In the cellphone video of the Wednesday incident, Craig can be heard telling the officer that the man had "grabbed and choked" her son. The officer engages Craig in a conversation that quickly escalates. He asks why she hadn't taught her son not to litter. Craig says regardless of whether the boy littered, the man did not have the right to "put his hands on him." The officer says, "Why not?"

Police said in their statement that they have reviewed the officer's body camera footage, but will not be releasing it or many other details because state law regarding internal investigations doesn't allow them to do so. The video, viewed more than 1.1 million times, was posted on Facebook by a woman identified by the Dallas Morning News as Craig's niece. In the video, one of Craig's daughters tries to push her mother away, but the officer forces Craig and the teen to the ground. He points a stun gun into Craig's back and then at her daughter when she tries to approach. "If a black woman in Fort Worth can't call the cops after her son is allegedly choked by a neighbor without getting arrested, why would she ever call the cops again?" asks the head of the ACLU of Texas. (More police brutality stories.)

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