A police officer in Texas on Wednesday arrested an African-American woman who reported an assault on her son, causing outrage on social media and prompting an internal investigation by the Fort Worth Police Department. In a video of the incident posted to Facebook, Jacqueline Craig and her daughter were arrested by the unidentified officer following a verbal argument between the two sides.

Craig had called police after a man allegedly grabbed her son by the neck for littering, Star-Telegram reported. In the video, Craig is seen narrating the assault. The conversation between the two turned into an argument after the officer asked Craig why she could not ask her son “to not litter”. “It doesn’t matter if he did or didn’t, it doesn’t give him the right to put his hands on him,” Craig replied.

Advertisement

The officer then told Craig he would take her to jail if she did not stop yelling, after which he arrested her and her daughter. In statement, the Fort Worth Police Department said its Internal Affairs Unit had reviewed the video and had interviewed two of those arrested. “Since this is an internal investigation, state law limits the information that may be released, including the officer’s body cam[era] footage,” the statement said.

Craig was charged with resisting arrest, while her daughter was charged with resisting arrest and interfering with public duty. A lawyer for the two women demanded that the charges against his clients be dropped, calling them “completely manufactured”. “We want to see the officer involved terminated from his position as a peace officer within Fort Worth and would also like to see him prosecuted criminally for his behaviour,” Lee Merritt said.

Relations between the African-American community and police forces around the United States have deteriorated rapidly in recent months over allegations of racial bias by investigating officers and several incidents of police shootings.

Watch the video of the incident here [Warning: Profanity]