A video showing the arrest of a woman and her daughter in Fort Worth, Texas, has sparked outrage on social media. (Facebook/Porsha Craver)
A Facebook video showing the arrests of a mother and her daughters by a police officer in Fort Worth, Texas, has sparked outrage on social media, with many claiming wrongdoing by the cop.
The five-minute video was posted Wednesday night by Porsha Craver.
In the video, a woman, identified as Jacqueline Craig, can be heard telling an officer that she called police because a neighbor had grabbed her son.
Read more about Jacqueline Craig and the incident here.
Craig, 46, tells the officer the man had accused her son of littering, and then assaulted him after her son did not listen to him. As the officer and the woman talk, things quickly grow heated and the officer eventually arrests her and her 19-year-old daughter, Brea Hymond. Another daughter, a juvenile, was also arrested.
You can watch the video below:
You can watch the full 29-minute video, showing moments before the officer arrived and additional footage of what happened during the arrest below:
Body camera footage from the incident can be watched here:
Lee Merritt, a civil rights attorney with the Dallas-based Merritt & Crockett Law Offices, said on Facebook he was going to see Craig and Hymond at the Fort Worth City Jail. He posted a video early Thursday morning saying he is representing them as his clients:
Merritt said the Fort Worth Police Department’s Internal Affairs Unit is investigating the “unusual arrest,” of the women.
He posted an update early Thursday morning, saying Craig and Hymond were in “good spirits given the situation” and he was attempting to secure their release.
“We are attempting to secure that now. The ladies participated in an internal affairs investigation that’s ongoing,” Merritt said. “They were interviewed, with me present, and now we’re just simply waiting to hear about their release.
“The ladies appreciate all the support they’re receiving,” Merritt said in the video. “I’ve shared with them your support, your prayers, your presence even for the people who have come and made their physical presence known and plan to protest, and all of it is appreciated and we will go about the business of seeking justice here.”
Merritt said Thursday afternoon that Craig and her daughters had been released on bail.
Jacquelin Craig and her two teenage daughters are finally headed home! #thoushallnotlitter
In a statement issued Thursday afternoon, the Fort Worth Police Department said the officer seen in the video, who has not been identified, has been placed on “restricted duty status” while an internal affairs investigation is conducted.
The police department said they were alerted to the video about 10 p.m., and the Internal Affairs Unit “began to immediately review the video and subsequently initiated an internal affairs investigation.”
The investigators also reviewed video recorded the officer’s body worn camera. It was active during the incident, but the footage has not been released.
“We acknowledge that the initial appearance of the video may raise serious questions,” the department said in the statement. “We ask that our investigators are given the time and opportunity to throughly examine this incident and to submit their findings. This process may take time, but the integrity of the investigation rests upon the ability of the investigators to document facts and to accurately evaluate the size and scope of what transpired. We ask our community for patience and calm during this investigation process.”
The video was posted on Facebook about 8 p.m., and had been viewed more than 100,000 times three hours later. It had been seen more than a million times by Thursday afternoon.
According to Craver, the incident occurred on the southwest side of Fort Worth. The video begins after a police officer, who is white, responded to the call. Only one officer is seen in the video.
The officer seen in the video has not been identified. (Facebook/Porsha Craver)
The video begins with the officer speaking with a white man who has been identified by the family as a the neighbor they say assaulted Jackie Craig’s young son for littering.
The officer then walks over to Jackie Craig and asks her “what’s going on with you?” She tells the officer the man “grabbed and choked” her son. She tells the officer the man grabbed the boy because he “defied” him. She says the man should have come to her instead of “putting your hands on my son.”
The officer then tells Craig, “why don’t you teach your son not to litter?”
She responds, “He can’t prove to me that my son littered, but it doesn’t matter if he did or didn’t, it doesn’t give him the right to put his hands on him.”
The officer then says, “why not?” As the conversation gets more heated, the officer asks Craig why she is yelling, and she says because he “pissed her off.”
He then tells her, “if you keep yelling at me you’re going to piss me off and I’m going to take you to jail.”
Craig’s daughter then walks toward her mother and the officer, appearing to try to calm her mother down, and the officer grabs her from behind. Craig then yells at the officer not to grab her, and the scene turns chaotic.
The video then cuts to Craig on the ground with the officer kneeling in her back, his Taser in his hand. He points the Taser at a young girl, and then also at Craig’s daughter, who scrambles away as the officer handcuffs Craig. He then goes and handcuffs Craig’s daughter, before taking them both to his SUV.
He then turns his attention to the woman recording the incident, and runs at her, knocking the camera out of her hand and telling her, “you’re going to jail too.”
Still working hard to secure release of Jacqueline Craig & Brea Hymond. They are in good spirits & appreciate all the support. @ShaunKing
Craig was arrested on charges of resisting arrest and failure to identify, according to court records. She was also arrested on warrants from the Irving Police Department for traffic charges, including driving with a suspended license, failure to maintain financial responsibility and speeding. She was being held on a total of $5,901.90 bail.
(Mansfield City Jail)
Craig’s daughter, Brea Hymond, 19, was charged with resisting arrest and interfering with public duties. She was being held on $3,500 bail.
(Mansfield City Jail)
Porsha Craver, who posted the video, then addresses the camera, saying, “I just want you all to see how the Fort Worth Police Department treated my family after calling them for a racist man putting his hands on a 7-year-old, my 7-year-old little cousin, who couldn’t defend himself. When they called Fort Worth Police, this is what we got. These motherf*cking racist-a*s officers, who clearly are not here for us. Racist b*tches. … We want everybody to see this s*it, how Fort Worth Police Department is here to treat people, and what this racist a*s police did. He deserves to lose his job and this is our goal.”
There are no records that the man Craig claims assaulted her son was arrested.
“(The) officer involved will be given 48 hours to prepare a statement and consult an attorney. Under IA investigation,” Craig’s attorney, Lee Merritt, said in a Facebook post. “The FWPD never took original report of assault on (Jacqueline) Craig’s son. After bond is posted completing this report will be our 1st step.”
The Dallas-based Next Generation Action Network is planning a protest Thursday night, its president, Dominique Alexander, said on Facebook. Alexander called it a “horrifying incident.”
The “We Demand Justice for Brea Hymond & Jacqueline Craig” protest is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at the old Tarrant County Courthouse, 100 East Weatherford Street, in Fort Worth.
Neither the city’s mayor, Betsy Price, nor its police chief, Joel Fitzgerald, have commented about the video.
In a statement Thursday, the department said it “enjoys a close and cooperative 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.”
Read more about this incident in Fort Worth in Spanish at AhoraMismo.com:
