The Final Call

Officer pepper sprays Black activists protecting rights of Black teen

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CLEVELAND - Transit Authority police say an officer used pepper spray on a crowd trying to prevent them from taking an allegedly intoxicated 14-year-old Black boy to police headquarters.

Video still of police officer pepper spraying crowd during demonstration.

The incident took place July 26 as a three-day gathering referred to as the Movement for Black Lives, came to an end. Many activist organizations and others affiliated with the Black Lives Matters movement came together to strategize, network and share organizing experiences.

In a statement, the Greater Cleveland Rapid Transit Authority says officers “peacefully removed” an intoxicated 14-year-old Black youth from a bus and took him to a bus shelter.

Conference participant Destinee Henton says people formed a barricade around the police cruiser and began chanting. It was at that time one officer began pepper  spraying people, she said. Video of the incident quickly emerged and went viral.

With the death of  Freddie Gray in Baltimore and recently, Sandra Bland in Texas—both of whom died under suspicious circumstances while in police custody—activists challenged the officers and asked why they were taking the young boy into custody.

Fresh memories of 12-year-old Tamir Rice being brutally gunned down by police while holding only a toy, as well as the deaths of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, killed by police after a high-speed chase and 137 bullets were fired into their car has the Cleveland activist community on edge.

Dozens of members of the Black Youth Project 100, an outspoken human rights organization, participated in the inaugural convening of the Movement For Black Lives in Cleveland. According to several eyewitness accounts, at least 12 BYP100 members were pepper sprayed by police at the scene without just cause. The young boy was released into his mother’s care after the mass direct action and there were no arrests.

Charlene Carruthers

Calling the pepper spraying an act of “unprompted violence” against those looking out for the rights of the young boy, Charlene Carruthers, BYP 100’s national director called the ultimate result a “demonstration of what collective action can achieve in the face of police violence against a 14-year-old boy and activists.”

“Our commitment to abolishing the police state was strengthened and we remain steadfast in building a movement for all Black lives,” said Ms. Carruthers.

(Final Call staff contributed to this report.)