ACLU of Texas Comment on Fort Worth Woman’s Arrest Video

HOUSTON – A video circulating on social media shows a Fort Worth woman thrown to the ground, threatened with a Taser, and arrested after calling the Fort Worth Police to report an alleged assault on her seven-year-old son.

The following may be attributed to Terri Burke, executive director of the ACLU of Texas:

“We regret that the FWPD is giving the officer 48 hours to prepare his report on the incident. That leaves us with only the video on which to rely for information. When the mother of a seven-year-old boy calls the police to report an assault on her son, the responding officer should expect to find her distraught. In this instance, the officer ignored basic community policing standards and his own responsibility to de-escalate the confrontation. This incident and countless others like them demonstrate that for people of color, showing anything less than absolute deference to police officers —regardless of the circumstances — can have unjust and often tragic consequences. This fundamental injustice is also a threat to public safety. If a Black woman in Fort Worth can’t call the cops after her son is allegedly choked by a neighbor without getting arrested, why would she ever call the cops again?”