Footage of teen fight causes outcry after police reaction called ‘racism’

Police, there to break up the fight, sat the white boy on a couch while pinning down the Black boy with their knees and placing him in handcuffs.

Some New Jersey police officers are under fire for how they handled the breakup of a fight between a white teenager and a Black teenager at a mall last weekend, after police pinned the Black teen to the ground while allowing the white teen to sit on a couch and watch.

The fight, which took place Saturday at Bridgewater Commons in Bridgewater Township, N.J., was caught on video.

The video shows a group of teens gathered in one of the mall’s seating areas as the two teens argue.

The white teen puts his finger in the Black teen’s face, prompting the Black teen to push his hand away. The white teen then shoves the Black teenager, who begins throwing punches. The two exchange blows and eventually the white teen throws the Black teen to the ground.

Two Bridgewater Township officers then come into frame, separating the two boys — the white teen is placed on a nearby couch by a female officer, while the male officer forces the Black teen back to the ground, kneels on his upper back, and both officers work to handcuff him.

“Yo, it’s ’cause he’s Black. Racially motivated,” someone says off-camera.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said in a tweet Wednesday that the “appearance of what is racially disparate treatment is deeply, deeply disturbing.”