Disturbing footage showing a 14-year-old Black boy being held in a headlock and tasered to the ground by a police officer has sparked an outcry on social media.
West Midlands Police said officers were called to a property in Bromford, Birmingham, at around 5.20pm on Monday to a “civil matter between neighbours”.
The video, viewed thousands of times, shows one officer wrestling the child from the address in a headlock while onlookers shout: “Get off him, get off him.” The boy breaks free and the same officer is seen discharging a taser on him, causing him to fall to the ground.
Police confirmed they arrested the child, along with a 37-year-old man, on suspicion of assaulting a police officer and the pair remain in custody. The teenager was also arrested for criminal damage and threats to cause criminal damage.
A West Midlands Police spokesperson said the force was reviewing officers’ bodyworn video and a referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) will be made “as is usual protocol in these circumstances”.
In the video, a woman thought to be the child’s mother, can be heard shouting “he’s 14” and “What the f**k have you done to my son?” As the officer tells the boy not to move, people can be heard pleading “Watch his asthma, look he can’t breathe, he’s a child.”
The officer can be heard telling people to stay back before adding: “I don’t care, I don’t care.”
A number of social media users have expressed concern and anger at the boy’s treatment.
“Disturbing footage reveals a 14-year-old Black child being choked and tasered by West Midlands Police, highlighting the urgent need to end police brutality and excessive use of force,” Black Lives Matter UK wrote online.
“This clip seems to show an escalation rather than controlling of a situation, which can’t be acceptable practice,” another user on social media commented.
Journalist Lorraine King posted: “If three grown a**e men can’t restrain a child without resorting to Tasering him then they are too weak to be police officers. This is deeply distressing and that poor boy carry that trauma into adulthood.”
Michael Morgan, a social commentator, posted online: “Deeply worrying footage of a 14-year-old boy choked, tasered and arrested yesterday by West Midlands police. “
A spokesperson for the Independent Office for Police Conduct said: “We are aware of this incident and we understand that a referral is to be made to us by West Midlands Police in relation to it. When we receive that we will carry out a thorough assessment to determine what further action is required from us.”
