Kye and his mother Eboné appeared on Don Lemon Tonight, Wednesday, where they spoke about a fight the 14-year-old got into with a white teen at a New Jersey mall on Saturday, and how officers responded when they arrived.
Kye said the fight started because the older white kid was picking on his friend. The scuffle didn’t last long before the police showed up, but even though the white kid appeared to be winning at the time, one officer pulled him off of Kye and sat him on a nearby couch, while the other officer tackled Kye, put him on his stomach, and proceeded to arrest him. Both of their knees were pressed into Kye’s back while the other teen just watched. At one point, he stood up and looked down at Kye as he was being cuffed. Kye was taken to a holding room while the white teen was not.
“I kind of felt like the cops were going along with what the older kid was saying about him being bigger and stronger and superior. I felt like they were agreeing to it,” Kye said. “I felt like they were treating him like he was superior to me, and agreeing with the fact that he knew he was superior. Or that he thought he was superior.”
I want there badges taken awayEboné
The video has gone viral and understandably sparked outrage. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said he was “deeply disturbed” by the incident. And Eboné has no doubt this happened for one reason and one reason only.
“I hate to say this, but if it wasn’t for race, then what is it?” Eboné asked. “What made them tackle my son and not the other kid? What made them be so aggressive with my son and not the other kid? Why is the other kid sitting down looking at my son be humiliated and put into cuffs? It just doesn’t make sense. It makes me angry.”
Eboné, who said she would like to trust the police, believes that had this not happened at a mall with so many onlookers, things could have been a lot worse for Kye.
“It could have been worse. I feel like if it wasn’t in a mall setting where there were so many eyes — if they did that when there were so many eyes, I can’t imagine if it was in any other scenario,” Eboné said. “That’s scary, especially knowing, you know, especially knowing what has happened before. It’s just scary to think of it.”
Eboné made clear that she doesn’t think all police officers are bad, but it’s thoughts like the one above that leads her to believe the officers involved in this particular incident should be fired.
“I want their badges taken away,” Eboné said, “because if they’ll do it now, I’m sure they’ve done it before, and what will they do in the future? If you do something once, you can do it again.”
Don Lemon Tonight airs weeknights at 10 p.m. on CNN.
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