SOMERSET COUNTY, New Jersey (NewsNation Now) — A police department in New Jersey is under fire for treating two teenagers involved in a mall fight very differently.
One of the teens was Black, while the other is Latino but white-passing, raising concerns about racial bias.
It took 20 seconds for two Bridgewater Police Department officers to get to the fight and head toward the teens, who were already full-on fighting on the ground, NewsNation local affiliate PIX11 reports.
The Latino teen was on top of the Black teen. Both officers yanked the Latino teen away from the other teen, and the female officer sat the Latino teen down on a couch. But her male partner immediately tackled the Black teen, who was already on his back, before putting him in handcuffs.
When the female cop walked away from the teen on the couch, who had not been handcuffed, to assist her partner, she appeared to put her knee over the Black teen’s neck.
“I knew it was wrong, and I knew there was gonna be problems when they did that,” 15-year-old Joey, the Latino teen who was involved in the fight, told PIX11. “They didn’t go for me.”
Bridgewater Police Department put out a statement on Facebook, saying it is aware of the video.
“We recognize that this video has made members of our community upset and are calling for an internal affairs investigation,” Bridgewater police said.
The post garnered over 1,000 reactions and 2,000 comments as of Thursday afternoon. Under it, people expressed outrage and disgust at the officers’ actions and called for their firing.
On NewsNation’s “Rush Hour,” airing at 5/4C on Thursday, the girl who recorded the fight is scheduled to speak.