The subject of police brutality has been part of public discourse for years. Since the Black Lives Matter movement gained momentum after the murder of George Floyd, it’s been under an exceptionally bright spotlight. Even with all the examples available, there are still stories that stun with their horrifying blatancy. This is one such instance.
The city of Philadelphia agreed to pay $2 million to a young Black mother after police officers smashed the windows… https://t.co/dSG3BT29Sq
— The New York Times (@The New York Times)1631709008.0
The headline here is that the city of Philadelphia was just ordered to pay a Black mother $2 million in damages for the beating she endured and trauma she and her 2-year-old experienced at the hands of the Philadelphia police in October of 2020. The story goes on, but there is more.
Here’s the background:
According to NBC10 Philadelphia, nursing aide Rickia Young was driving home in the early morning hours of Oct. 27, 2020, after picking up her 16-year-old nephew in West Philadelphia, when she unintentionally drove into a protest over the police killing of Walter Wallace, Jr. His family called 911 to report that Wallace was suffering from a mental disorder and wanted medical attention. Police shot and killed Wallace.
Young was ordered to turn back by the police, but when she attempted to make a 3-point turning, officers surrounded her car and beat her windows with batons. Young’s attorney claims that police took Young and her nephew out of the car and struck them. Then police pulled Young’s 2-year-old from the car and took him away, telling her they were taking him “to a better place.”
Young was bleeding and had swelling on her face, body, and trachea. Her mother called her, and she went to find the 2-year old. He was found in the back seat of a car, four miles away from his home, with his hearing aids missing and glass fragments in his car seat.
We can all agree that this is a terrible situation. Here’s the bottom line.
Two days after the incident, the National Fraternal Order of Police—the largest police union in the U.S.—shared a photo of one of the police officers at the scene, holding Young’s son, with the following text:
“This child was lost during the violent riots in Philadelphia, wandering around barefoot in an area that was experiencing complete lawlessness. The only thing this Philadelphia Police Officer cared about at that moment was protecting this child.
We are not your enemy. We are the Thin Blue Line. And WE ARE the only thing standing between Order and Anarchy.”
What the police union posted to their social media: https://t.co/YgLWUGs2tk
— Laurie Voss (@Laurie Voss)1631717659.0
The irony would be hilarious if it weren’t so horrifying.
The post was taken down within a day, but not before it had been shared widely. The following day, the police union wrote that the union “learned of conflicting accounts of the circumstances under which the child came to be assisted by the officer and immediately took the photo and caption down.”
No apology. The police union did not make any mention of what happened. There was no mention of the trauma the boy suffered as he watched police officers smash his car windows before being beaten in front of his mother.
According to NBC10, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said that she and the law enforcement community “demand that officers exhibit the utmost professionalism, decorum, and poise while interacting with members of the public.” Two officers were ultimately fired over the incident, and 14 additional officers faced disciplinary hearings.
“The behavior that occurred during the interaction between Rickia Young, her nephew, her son, and some of the officers on the scene violated the mission of the Philadelphia Police Department,” Outlaw made the statement in a statement. “The ability for officers and supervisors on the scene to diffuse the situation was abandoned, and instead of fighting crime and the fear of crime, some of the officers on the scene created an environment that terrorized Rickia Young, her family, and other members of the public.”
Accordingly, Outlaw received a $2 million settlement from the city.
Philadelphia Reaches $2M Settlement With Rickia Young and Mother Who Was Beaten By Police During the Arrest.
The Philadelphia Inquirer shared a detailed account of what occurred that night, and it’s worth a read. The blatant cruelty and inhumanity of Young’s actions are enough. But to have Young’s photo used by the largest police union in the country as pro-police propaganda just adds insult to injury. And the response from the union was pretty much the definition of “inadequate.”
No one can undo what Young and her son experienced, but the firing of the officers and the payout from the city is at least something resembling accountability.