DC transit cop arrests, knocks down black teen over lollipop & chips [VIDEO]

A DC Metro Transit Police officer is under scrutiny after arresting and kicking a black teenage girl over a lollipop and a pack of chips. The local Black Lives Matter group has called the arrest “illegal,” urging its supporters to “stand up, fight back.”

The three-minute video of the incident at Columbia Heights Metro Station was shared by the District’s BLM chapter earlier this week, sparking heated debates.

The footage shows a handcuffed black girl, whose name and age have not been released, surrounded by three police officers. Next to them a lollipop and a yellow bag of chips can be seen on the floor.

“All right, sit down,” one officer says. “Sit down.”

As the girl refuses to comply, an officer knocks her to the ground in front of shocked bystanders.

“Stop touching me,” the girl yells back.

Sobbing, she refused to provide her school ID or give her age, telling an officer that she was not going to talk to him. An officer next to him then reaches to her backpack and starts searching, allegedly, for her identification.

“Oh, goodness. Because she had a lollipop? That is outrageous,” a woman exclaims in the background.

According to Metro Transit Police, the girl was stopped behind the entrance gates, and was asked to put away food as eating is prohibited. She “responded with a defiant ‘No!’” the Washington Post reported, citing a police report.

After she ignored two requests, an officer placed handcuffs on her.
“You didn’t have to put it that tight,” she can be heard saying.

As some defended the teenager, saying she was “a little girl,” the officer responded: “Little girls can break the law! Little girls can get arrested like everybody else! And she goes to juvenile detention and her mom comes and picks her up. That’s how it works!”

Metro General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld saw the video and ordered an internal “review” of the incident, according to the Post’s transportation reporter Faiz Siddiqui.

Earlier, Metro spokesman Richard L. Jordan said that police decided not to pursue charges against the officer, while declining to publicly evaluate if excessive force was used, the Post reported.

In the meantime, BLM has argued that the officer unjustifiably used force against the teen.

While the movement has urged its supporters to “stand up, fight back,” not everyone shared BLM’s views.