NYPD Investigates ‘Troubling’ Video of Cops Seizing Infant – Newser

(Newser)
–
A video circulating widely on Facebook has brought a new controversy to the NYPD. In it, officers are seen trying to forcefully pull a 1-year-old baby from his mother’s arms while she is on the ground, reports the New York Times. “They’re hurting my son!” the woman identified as 23-year-old Jazmine Headley is heard screaming as officers try to arrest her. The department called the video “troubling” and said it is investigating. The incident occurred Friday at a food stamp office, and the woman who filmed the video said police were called when Headley sat on the floor and refused a security guard’s orders to move. Officers arrived and ordered her “numerous times to leave the location, and she refused,” says an NYPD spokeswoman, per the Daily News.

Dozens of onlookers gather around as one officer in particular, a female, repeatedly tries to yank the child from Headley. The same officer later waves a stun gun at the angry crowd, notes the Times. City Council Speaker Corey Johnson called the video “unacceptable, appalling and heart breaking” in a tweet. “No mother should have to experience the trauma and humiliation we all witnessed in this video,” said Public Advocate and state Attorney General-elect Letitia James, reports NBC News. Headley faces charges of resisting arrest, acting in a manner injurious to a child, obstruction, and criminal trespass. Police say she also had a warrant for her arrest out of New Jersey, but the details on that were not immediately known. She was being held in Rikers Island, and a relative was caring for the baby. (Read more NYPD stories.)