Wisconsin police beat this black teen while he screamed for his mother

A police department in Wisconsin triggered outrage over the weekend after cell phone video surfaced of two white officers punching and tackling a 17-year-old black teenager during an arrest in a shopping mall parking lot, allegedly for refusing orders to stop and talk to them.

The incident began Friday afternoon at around 4:30 p.m., when security guards at Mayfair Mall contacted Wauwatosa Police Department in Milwaukee County to report five men “acting disorderly and causing a disturbance,” CBS-58 reported.

The video shows a member of the Wauwatosa Police Department punch the teenager in the face while the mall security guard attempts to restrain him. The two cops then tackle him to the ground and hit him again in the back the head while he’s pinned being handcuffed and screaming for someone to call his mother.

Wauwatosa Police Department did not return VICE News’ request for comment, but told local media that the video showed “only a small segment of the interaction between the suspect and the officer.”

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They said the video does not show the teenager refusing to comply with orders to stop and speak to the officers, or that he tried to fight the officers as they attempted to detain him.

The teen was later cited and released.

"I can assure you that we take all situations seriously when they involve a use of force by our officers,” said Wauwatosa Police Chief Barry M. Weber in a statement. “We thoroughly review all incidents in which force is used by an officer and will do so in this incident, as well."

Racial justice groups are rallying behind the teen and calling on the police department to fire the officers and commit to undergo diversity training. Leading the call are The Original Black Panthers of Milwaukee, part of the re-emergence of Black Panther groups seen nationwide in recent years.

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“We also want to the mall to terminate the security officer who was assisting the Wauwatosa Police Department in the assault. We’re calling for a boycott of Mayfair Mall,” Original Black Panther of Milwaukee leader Darryl Farmer, also known as “King Rick,” told VICE News. “That young man and his friends were being followed around by the security guards, who said they were being loud and boisterous. The security guards followed them into the parking lot. And then the young man got viciously and brutally assaulted by an adult male who is meant to protect and serve us.”

Friday’s incident isn’t the first time that police in Wauwatosa, situated just west of Milwaukee, have been scrutinized for their tactics. In 2016, Wauwatosa Police shot and killed Jay Anderson, a black man. The officers involved said that they shot Anderson when he reached for his handgun, and federal civil rights investigators later concurred that they’d acted in self defense. The incident and its handling by Wauwatosa Police Department, especially its initial reluctance to release dashcam video of the shooting, inflamed police-community relations.

Meanwhile, data has also shown nextdoor Milwaukee to be a hotbed of racial profiling. In February, the ACLU sued Milwaukee Police Department after their report concluded they made more than 350,000 traffic and pedestrian stops from 2010 to 2017 without reasonable suspicion that a crime had been committed, and that black and latino residents were disproportionately targeted.

“They’re biased,” Farmer said. “We want that to end, we’re demanding that to end, because we’re a valuable part of this community.”

Cover image: Screen shot of video from Tyrone Jackson.