*New York City will pay a Black mother over $600k after her 18-month-old son was forcefully pulled from her arms by officers during an incident at Brooklyn’s Human Resources Administration office last year.
Jazmine Headley, 23, was reportedly visiting office to apply for daycare vouchers so that she could begin working as a security guard. With no available seats in the social services office, she opted to sit on the waiting room floor with her son — and that’s when all hell broke loose.
When Headley reportedly refused to stand when security informed her that she was blocking a hallway. Cops were called and video shows they escalated the situation by yanking the toddler from Headley’s arms.
Headley could be heard screaming: “They’re hurting my son! They’re hurting my son!”
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Nyashia Ferguson the woman who recorded the incident and posted video on social media (see clip above), said the police presence only made the situation worse.
“They’re always rude,” Ferguson told the New York Times. “They think that people that are poor don’t have nothing, so you can treat them any kind of way.”
Headley was later arrested on charges of resisting arrest, committing an act in a manner injurious to a child, criminal trespass and obstruction of governmental administration.
The charges were ultimately dropped.
City reaches $625,000 settlement with Jazmine Headley https://t.co/w6U7DBc7LB @nypmetro pic.twitter.com/RnKZ5hdjDt
— Eric Sanders, Esq. (@SandersFirmPC) December 13, 2019
Headley filed a federal lawsuit back in August, requesting unspecified damages for her child who suffered physical injuries.
She’s now set to receive a $625,000 settlement from the city for how the NYPD handled the situation.
A spokeswoman for Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement that officers failed to treat Headley with “the dignity and respect she deserved.”
“While this injustice should have never happened, it forced a reckoning with how we treat our most vulnerable and prompted us to make reforms at HRA Centers across the City,” the letter continued, according to NBC New York. “We hope this settlement brings Ms. Headley and her family a degree of closure.”
Update: Jazmine Headley, the mother whose son was ripped from her arms by NYPD officers, has been awarded a $625,000 settlement from New York City.
— FierceWarriorNStilettos (@InactionNever) December 16, 2019
