Her crime? There were no available seats and so she sat on the floor.
This video is very unsettling to watch – another horrific example of abuse of power has surfaced. Nothing could warrant such a reaction as the one shown in these 2 and a half minutes of now viral footage.
A group of officers from the New York City Human Resources Administration are seen violently ripping a 1-year-old baby from the arms of his 23-year-old mother, Jasmine Headley.
Headley was visiting the office of Human Resources Administration in Brooklyn on Friday to get a daycare voucher to enable her to take on a cleaning job. The offices were crowded, and seeing that there was nowhere for her to sit, Headley sat down on the floor with her son. This was her 'crime'.
Officers reportedly told her to stand. When she refused, the officers first called a supervisor and then the police. The video depicts what followed.
Headley is repeatedly heard screaming, 'They’re hurting my son, they’re hurting my son!' At one point, an officer pulls out a yellow stun gun and waves it around.
Headley is currently being held without bail at Rikers Island and has been barred from seeing her son. She will reportedly have a court hearing on Thursday. Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams is calling for those charges to be dropped, while Mayor Bill de Blasio has called for answers:
Headley's mother, Jacqueline Jenkins, has spoken to the press about the incident:
'I was devastated to see something like that happen to my daughter and grandson, and how this officer yanking on my grandson to get him out of my daughter's arms. I want people fired, I really do, y'all shouldn't be working out of a facility where people every day have kids and you don't have any understanding of caring. They are there to take care of their business like everybody else.'
Too often, those who abuse power aren't brought to justice. Let this latest episode make an example of those involved and send a clear message that excessive force will not be tolerated.