Brutal Lakeland Cops Body-Shamed Black Teen Before Beating Him, Mom Says
Source: Tim Boyles / Getty
Police in Lakeland, Florida are under fire after a 16-year-old Black boy was tased, punched and body-shamed by officers during a pool party on Memorial Day weekend.
“It’s disgusting how he was treated,” Ja’Tae Lewis, the mother of the boy, said
According to WTSP, Jahmal Hudson was punched and tased by Lakeland police after a neighbor called authorities to shut the party down. Hudson claims when he went back to the pool to retrieve his shirt, a verbal altercation began with the offices on site.
That’s when Lewis says officers began to body shame him, telling him he needed to be next door at the gym instead of the pool. The comment infuriated Lewis, who admittedly put his hand in the officer’s face.
“They were told to leave, and they were leaving. When that comment was said that’s when all hell broke loose,” Lewis told WTSP.
Video of the incident, which was obtained by WTSP, shows Hudson being punched multiple times while one of the officers grabs him by the hair. The video then goes on to show officers tasing him before falling to the ground.
“Nobody, none of those kids touched those police officers before then, said Lewis. “It was just a verbal argument. Between a grown man and a 16-year-old boy. I have seven police officers’ names and badges. Everyone that I talked to, no one wanted to speak to me.”
According to the police report, officers claimed Hudson flailed at them, landing a punch on one of the arresting officers, but Hudson’s mother says her son was the one beaten.
“His whole jaw was swollen. His ear was swollen. His lip was busted. He has a patch of hair missing from his head from one of the police officers pulling his hair,” she told WTSP.
After the incident, Jahmal Hudson was taken to the hospital and released, but the video was so horrific that the boy’s mom took him back to the hospital for further testing.
“My son is pinned in a corner. No other place to go but forward to defend himself,” she said. “I threw up. I was sick to my stomach. I was sick.”
Hudson is facing charges of trespassing, battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest. He is set to return to court June 7.
“Although we have several cases that we have been dealing with in Lakeland, I think that this is the most disturbing,” Pastor Clayton Cowart with the Poor Minority Justice Association told WTSP. “Beating him, with a taser, hitting him, knocking him down. That’s excessive. This, the entire community is saying, ‘Wait a minute – this is a 16-year-old. This is a child.’”
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