Philadelphia police allegedly pulled a 2-year-old Black toddler from the back seat of his family’s SUV after breaking all of the windows and injuring his mother in a violent arrest—then a police union posted a photo of the child on Facebook and claimed officers were protecting him after he got “lost.” The incident happened early Tuesday when the boy’s mom was driving near a protest over the police shooting of 27-year-old Black man Walter Wallace Jr. A viral video shows officers smashing in the vehicle’s windows, throwing mom Rickia Young to the ground, then taking the child from the back seat. In a deleted Facebook post, the Fraternal Order of Police union uploaded a photo of an officer cradling the same kid with a caption claiming that he was “lost during the violent riots,” “wandering around barefoot,” and that police were “protecting this child.” Attorney Riley H. Ross III told TheWashington Post: “It’s propaganda... That little boy is terrified because of what the police did.” The Philadelphia Inquirer reports Young was released without charges and was treated at a hospital for bruises and cuts from the broken glass.
1/ This post by @GLFOP is a lie. My firm @MinceyFitzRoss represents this boy and his mother. This photo was taken moments after police attacked their vehicle, busted out the windows, ripped the mother from her car and assaulted her. pic.twitter.com/6dmDfoBe2B