“The city of Philadelphia will pay $2 million to a Black woman who was pulled from a car, beaten by officers and had her toddler used for social media fodder by the police union,” NBC News reported on Tuesday, September 14, 2021. (Read story here.)
“Nursing aide Rickia Young was headed home in the early morning hours of Oct. 27, 2020, when she unknowingly drove into a large protest over the police killing of Walter Wallace Jr.,” NBC News said.
“She tried to … get away from the tense scene when officers smashed out her windows,” handcuffed her, made off with her 2-year-old toddler, and the police union displayed him as a trophy on social media, falsely claiming that he “was lost during the violent riots in Philadelphia, wandering around barefoot in an area that was experiencing complete lawlessness.”
Mayor Jim Kenney called the police actions “absolutely appalling” and “inexcusable,” and a sergeant and an officer were fired for the incident.
Walter Wallace Jr. was a mentally ill black man waving a knife at police officers when he was shot on October 26, 2020. His death prompted large demonstrations. Read details of his death and the demonstrations that followed here.