Grace Carr
Outcries have grown louder after a video of New York police officers subduing a mother and wrestling her child away went viral Monday.
The video portrays roughly three New York City Police Department (NYPD) officers struggling to pull a child from a woman’s arm at a social services facility, ABC News reported Monday. The woman, Jazmine Headley, 23, can be heard screaming, “You’re hurting my son. You’re hurting my son!”
The incident occurred when Headley went to the city’s Human Resources Administration (HRA) office in Brooklyn to determine why daycare vouchers had been cut off for her son, according to Brooklyn Defender Services Executive Director Lisa Schreibersdorf.
Brooklyn Defender Services is a “public defender organization that represents nearly 35,000 people each year who are too poor to afford an attorney,” according to its website.
The police were called at roughly 1 p.m. Friday after the woman became belligerent and would not leave the Brooklyn office, according to reports.
“The NYPD was called after office staff and HRA peace officers made unsuccessful attempts to remove this individual from the facility due to her disorderly conduct towards others, and for obstructing a hallway,” NYPD said in a statement, according to ABC.
Police arrested and charged Headley with resisting arrest, committing an act in a manner injurious to a child, criminal trespassing, and obstruction of governmental administration, according to the NYPD, ABC reported.
The NYPD maintains that Headley had already been wrestled onto the ground by HRA workers when its own officers arrived, ABC reported.
A judge also issued a restraining order against Headley prohibiting her from approaching her son, according to ABC.
Headley’s mother Jacqueline Jenkins said her daughter sat on the floor with her 1-year-old son after finding no available seats in the Brooklyn office, ABC reported. An HRA official informed Headley that she could not sit on the floor and was blocking the hallway, according to Jenkins.
After Headley refused to stand, a supervisor called the police, Jenkins maintains. “I was devastated to see something like that happen to my daughter and grandson,” Jenkins told WABC-TV.
Former New York City Police Captain Eric Adams blasted the police department over the incident and demanded the office hold itself to higher standards.
“We are better than the images we witnessed over the weekend,” Adams said, ABC reported. “This should be a place where families come to regain their dignity and respect instead of having it ripped from them.”
Adams also called for the charges against Headley to be dropped and demanded that the NYPD open a full investigation into the incident.
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson also tweeted about the incident.
Corey Johnson✔@CoreyinNYC
This is unacceptable, appalling and heart breaking.
I’d like to understand what transpired and how these officers or the NYPD justifies this.
It’s hard to watch this video.
Alex S. Vitale✔@avitale
There are 3 NYPD officers and a sgt. shown ripping a baby out of the hands of a mother in an ACS office. This was the best plan they could come up with? No threat to anyone, no emergency, just brutal disregard for the well-being of mother and child. https://www.facebook.com/nyashia.ferguson/videos/2165023130216850/ …
Headley is behind held at Rikers Island prison and awaits a Thursday court hearing, according to ABC.
An attorney from Brooklyn Defender Services will represent Headley, ABC reported.
NYPD did not immediately respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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