New Jersey mall fight sparks outrage after Black teen was handcuffed

This is infuriating but not shocking…

Source: fhm / Getty

By now a good many of you have probably seen the latest viral video of police ineptitude, bias, and complete inability to properly handle situations that involve Black people. The scene is set at the Bridgewater Commons Mall in New Jersey and from the clip, you can see a young Black boy and a young white boy having a verbal altercation that goes left when the white kid escalates the situation.

A scuffle ensues and eventually, two white cops rush in to presumably break up the fight. However, while they did break up the fight, they immediately rush to put handcuffs on the Black kid while shielding the white kid and allowing him to just sit there. It’s enough to make your head explode.

Peep the video below.

A woman has come forward identifying herself as the Black boy’s mother. She says he is a 14-year-old 8th grader who was defending some of his friends from the 16-year-old white aggressor. She would not identify herself further in order to protect her son’s identity. However, she spoke at length to NJ Advance Media about how she felt upon seeing the video. Her comments will undoubtedly raise an eyebrow or two…

“I’m not going to point fingers at race. I just know that the cops handled my son in a way that I don’t agree with,” the mom told NJ Advance Media. “My focus is not on the racial aspect. It’s more on I don’t like the fact that the cops handled my son like that and the other boy was not touched. I don’t like what happened but I’m not going to be the one to say that it was racially motivated.”

She can say, or not say, whatever she wants. We all know exactly what it is. The mother went on to point out more incompetence on the part of the police.

“They said they’ll be in contact with me because there was a table broken,” the woman said. “Once I watched the video, I saw the table didn’t get broken until the cops tackled my son, so that wasn’t his fault.”

The mall’s general manager Troy Fischer says that the boys have been banned from the mall for 3 years.

“They were both banned for fighting and for other (prior) incidents,” Fischer said. He added that while police officers are not stationed at the mall, the Bridgewater Police Department had received a tip that a fight might occur there Saturday night and that’s why officers were there.