A viral video from this week that captured a British police officer shocking a Black teenager with his stun gun has prompted international outrage.
Officials say the boy was arrested for assaulting a police officer and other minor charges, including resisting arrest. He broke away from the officer after tussling with him on the ground.
The incident, according to the West Midlands Police, was a response to their coming to secure a “civil matter between neighbors” on Monday, Oct. 16, a little after 5:15 p.m.
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Footage shows the WMP officer wrestling the boy down to the ground in front of his parents’ home in the Bromford district of Birmingham, England. Bystanders are crying out, saying, “Get off him, get off him,” as the confrontation results in him being placed in a headlock.
The 14-year-old boy breaks away and starts to run. That is when the officer he was struggling with aims his Taser and shoots the kid down with approximately 50,000 volts of electricity.
WATCH THE SHOCKING VIDEO HERE.
A woman, believed to be the teen’s mom, yells out, “He’s 14,” and “What the f–k have you done with my son?”
Onlookers who know the kid are heard warning the officer, “Watch his asthma. Look, he can’t breathe. He’s a child,” to which he replies, “I don’t care. I don’t care.”
Thousands have viewed the video on social media, leading Black Lives Matter UK to write, “Disturbing footage reveals a 14-year-old Black child being choked and tasered by West Midlands Police, highlighting the urgent need to end police brutality and excessive use of force.”
Others who shared the video commented that the officers seemed to escalate the situation rather than get it under control, saying that the process they utilized “can’t be acceptable practice.”
“If three grown a– men can’t restrain a child without resorting to Tasering him, then they are too weak to be police officers,” journalist Lorraine King wrote on the X platform. “This is deeply distressing, and that poor boy carries that trauma into adulthood.”
A spokesperson from West Midlands Police stated that the department is currently reviewing officers’ body camera footage and will refer the matter to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), which commented on the occurrence.
The WMP statement said officers “attempted to diffuse the situation,” but “threats of criminal damage were made.”
“One of the officers tried to arrest the suspect, but he resisted, and the officer was further attacked by another man. During the scuffle, a 14-year-old boy was Tasered,” the statement said, according to the Daily Mail.
According to the police, the boy was arrested with a 37-year-old man. Both were “arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer and remain in custody,” and the boy was further charged with “criminal damage and threats to cause criminal damage.”
“We are aware of this incident and we understand that a referral is to be made to us by West Midlands Police in relation to it,” an IOPC spokesperson wrote, according to The Independent. “When we receive that we will carry out a thorough assessment to determine what further action is required from us.”
