One young boy’s reaction to getting hit in the face with pepper spray by police reveals just how dangerous it is to be a Black boy in America — at least I didn’t get shot.
That’s essentially the message 10-year-old Taye Montgomery had as police brutality protesters in Minneapolis grew outraged after one cop allegedly pepper-sprayed him in the eyes.
“At least I got Maced and not shot,” he told reporters, according to The Guardian. He also asked the protesters to remain peaceful despite their right to be frustrated and outraged.
Since then, officials in the city announced that they are indeed investigating the matter and seeking witnesses who say they saw the incident unfold.
The allegation has now received national attention as the image of the young boy crying as his family pours milk in his eyes is quickly going viral.
A video of the incident has also gone viral, and while it doesn’t clearly show Taye being hit by the officer’s pepper spray, it does capture a high-pitch scream that could very well belong to a young boy in pain.
According to Taye’s mother, Susan, that’s exactly what the public is hearing.
It all started when families took to the streets in Minneapolis to protest the lack of charges placed against the police officer who fatally shot Tony Robinson in Madison, Wisconsin, in March.
Police insist that the protest became unruly and disorderly and said their use of pepper spray was completely justified.
Reports indicate that protesters had stopped traffic and were even harassing motorists although no clear evidence to support those claims has surfaced.
According to Taye’s mother, it may not even matter.
Susan insisted that the police gave no verbal warnings that they were about to start using pepper spray on the crowd and that’s how her son ended up right in the path of the painful chemical.
“It hurt,” Taye added during his talk with reporters. “I couldn’t see where I was going, I couldn’t find my mom.”
Despite the incident, Taye has remained strong and refuses to be deterred from protesting the racial biases that remain evident in most police brutality cases.
He served as the head of another protest Thursday, but this time his voice was heard calling for peace rather than screaming as the result of violence.
“We need to love one another,” he said in a megaphone during the protest.
Meanwhile, some officials have actually targeted the mother and questioned her decision to bring her 10-year-old son to the protest to begin with.
She, however, said she doesn’t regret it because she wants such exposure to help her son “break cycles and make change,” according to the Star Tribune.
Besides, if America is a country where a Black boy is old enough to be shot by police at the age of 12, it only makes sense that some mothers want to make sure their sons are fighting for justice by the age of 10.
