A viral video of Black high school students in Las Vegas being arrested by police on Feb. 10 has ignited sharp criticism for how the students were handled by the officers.
The video begins with two Clark County School District police officers walking a detained Black male teen with his hands behind his back toward their police vehicle.
Meanwhile, a group of students watched from the sidewalk while recording on their cellphones. Once the first teen is taken to the front of the police vehicle, the camera follows another officer who beelines toward another Black male teen wearing a gray hoodie and red sweatpants recording what is happening.
The officer grabs the teenager, puts his arm around his neck and slams him onto the roadway. The teen lands in between the curb and the parked police vehicle. While on the ground, other nearby teens look on as the officer yells at them, “Back the f—k up,” as he flashes handcuffs at them.
The second detained teenager is pinned down with the officer placing his knee on the back of the student’s neck for a few seconds until he is in handcuffs.
Other students continue to look on, asking the officer why he’s holding the teenager down the way he was. The officer continues to yell at the students to back up.
The video ends at this point, but it quickly made the rounds on social media sparking outrage.
“What happened was one kid walked past an officer holding their cellphone video recording, and then was aggressively approached and thrown to the ground. Pretty crazy that being video recorded justifies physical assault of a minor,” Tiffany Harrell commented on Facebook.
“There’s no context for a police officer to slam a minor on the floor like that. The officer is clearly not proficient in effective communication because there was no need to do that. Gosh, he’s an adult. But, they’re different, so,” Yuriria Hurtado commented.
