NJ governor ‘deeply disturbed’ by video showing Black teen handcuffed, pinned by police

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) said on Wednesday he was “deeply disturbed” by a video that shows police officers arresting a Black teen but not a Latino teen when breaking up a fight between two boys.

The video shows police officers in Bridgewater, N.J., responding to a fight at a mall, according to WPIX. A white male officer tackles the Black teen to the ground and handcuffs him, while a white female officer sits the Latino teen down as her partner makes the arrest.

The female officer then walks away from the Latino teen, who is not cuffed, and assists with detaining the Black teen, the video shows.

“Although an investigation is still gathering the facts about this incident, I’m deeply disturbed by what appears to be racially disparate treatment in this video,” Murphy tweeted on Wednesday. “We’re committed to increasing trust between law enforcement and the people they serve.”

The Hill has reached out to the Bridgewater Police Department for comment.

WPIX spoke to 15-year-old Joey, who was involved in the fight. He said he was surprised he was not detained and “even offered to get handcuffed.”

“I knew it was wrong, and I knew there was gonna be problems when they did that,” he said. “They didn’t go for me.”

The video also attracted the attention of national civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who called the incident “unacceptable” on Twitter. Crump said the police were “clearly racially biased.”

The NAACP of New Jersey also criticized the incident in a statement released on Twitter.

The NAACP was “disappointed to see still another police action irrefutably showing the disparate treatment of African-Americans in our police institutions,” the statement read. “The time for the governor and the attorney general to put a stop to this type of behavior by police is NOW.”