Police officers’ response to two teens fighting in a New Jersey mall has spurred an internal affairs investigation. On Tuesday (Feb. 15), a video of a fight between a white high schooler and a Black 8th grader at the Bridgewater Commons Mall went viral.
A clip of the incident shows the two teens fighting amongst a crowd of students, falling onto a couch and then onto the floor.
Police arrived and broke the two boys up, with one officer sitting the white high schooler down on the couch. Meanwhile, the other cop wrestled the Black teen to the ground, knelt on his back and immediately put him in handcuffs. The second cop then left the high schooler unattended to assist the other officer in handcuffing the 8th grader.
The video and the cops’ disparate response to the two boys have prompted outrage online.
“They basically tackled me to the ground and then the male officer put his knee in my back and then he started putting me in cuffs then the female officer came over and put her knee on my upper back too and started helping him put cuffs on me while he was just sitting down on the couch watching the whole thing,” the Black teen, who is named Kyle, told ABC 7.
According to Kyle, the high schooler was picking on one of his friends, a 7th grader, which is when he decided to step in.
“My friend was arguing with the older kid and so I kind of just jumped into a fight and since he’s older, he was on top of me and he’s bigger,” Kyle said. “I was just confused and mad about it.”
In a social media post, the boy’s mother Ebone called out the double standard.
“My son, an 8th grader, interfered with a high school boy bullying other kids in Bridgewater Mall. The high school boy then proceeded to put his hands on my son which resulted in the fight,” she wrote. “Cops then came in and placed the high schooler on a couch and pinned my son on the floor placing her knee on his neck and putting him in cuffs letting the high schooler stand there free and barely touched. Is this how you cops work? Pinning under aged boys to the ground?”
Speaking to ABC 7, she said the video of the cops’ response is so disturbing that she’s “had to watch it on mute.”
“I still haven’t watched it and listened to the sound, I’m baby-stepping my way into watching it, but it’s just crazy,” she added.
Since the footage went viral, the police department has opened an internal investigation. Ebone says she hopes the two cops will be “unemployable” after their interaction with her son.
“The Bridgewater Twp Police Department is aware of a video on social media of our officers stopping a fight in progress at the Bridgewater Commons Mall,” the department said in a statement. “We recognize that this video has made members of our community upset and are calling for an internal affairs investigation. The officers were able to respond quickly to this incident and stop it from escalating because of a tip we received from the community.”
“We have requested that the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office assist us in this matter and are requesting patience as we strictly adhere to the New Jersey Attorney General’s Internal Affairs Directive,” it continued. “We appreciate the videos that we have already received from community members and ask that anyone who has a video of this incident please email it to [email protected]. The men and women of the Bridgewater Township Police Department are thankful for our community partners and look forward to continuing to build our positive relationships.”
See the video of the fight and police response below.