In what some are calling a racist incident, a white Fort Worth police officer arrested a black woman and her two teenage daughters Wednesday after the woman called police to ask for help, reports the city’s Star-Telegram. The incident was captured on a cellphone video that has gone viral, with more than 2 million views on facebook, that shows the officer pointing a Taser and wrestling the woman and one of her daughters to the ground and handcuffing them. Jacqueline Craig had called police to report that a man had assaulted her 7-year-old son for littering. Relatives said the man in their southwest Fort Worth neighborhood had grabbed the boy by the neck while trying to get him to pick up the trash.
The situation escalated quickly when a police officer arrived, with women screaming profanities at the officer, who eventually handcuffed and arrested Craig and two daughters, Brea Hymond, 19, and Jacques Craig, 15. The officer, who has not been identified, was placed on “restricted duty” pending the outcome of an investigation by internal affairs. About 100 people gathered at the old Tarrant County Courthouse Thursday night to protest the incident, calling for the officer to be fired. Lee Merritt, an attorney representing the family, said of the incident, “It’s not a situation where someone used a racial slur, but racism is still all over it.”