Video Of Police Officer Arresting Pre-Teen In Cobb County Goes Viral

A video of a police officer arresting a black pre-teen at the Cumberland Mall in Cobb County, Georgia, has gone viral, drawing criticism from those who say it is just another occasion of the police being aggressive with young black men in America, according to reports from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The incident took place on October 6 and has since caused the Cobb County police to launch an internal investigation. Despite the criticism of the cop in question’s actions, Cobb County Police Chief Mike Register told the Journal-Constitution that so far no evidence has been uncovered showing that he broke any rules.

Register said, “The officer was in his legal rights to detain the juvenile. We take any incident like this very seriously.”

The juvenile who was targeted by the police in the video has been revealed as Corey Jackson, according to Toya Brown, who is a manager at Patchwerk Recording Studios in Atlanta. Brown says that Jackson is a rapper under the name Lil C Note whose career so far has seen him on the Ellen DeGeneres Show as well as on tour with Young Thug, J. Cole, and Jaden Smith.

The identity of the police officer has yet to be released, due to the pending investigation. Cobb County Police Department did say that he is still working on active duty.

When filming begins of the incident, the officer can already be seen grabbing Jackson’s arm. No details are given how the situation began.

“You’re 12?” the officer asks Jackson. “You’re about to go to jail. You’re going to go to a youth detention center if you don’t [inaudible].”

A woman’s voice is heard off-camera claiming to be Jackson’s aunt and making an effort to defend him.

“I have his father on the phone and you won’t even speak to him,” the woman said.

“Yup,” was the officer’s response.

The camera appears to be shaken as some sort of altercation begins, with the video ending with the police officer calling in the incident while another restrains Jackson, So far, views for the video have been in the thousands and drawn plenty of criticism from commenters.

However, Register made clear that what the video shows is only a small part of the entire story of the incident.

Jackson had previously received a criminal trespass warning for selling CDs at the mall and police were called after mall security spotted him again. Once police arrived on the scene, Jackson was verbally abusive and refused to cooperate before he was told to leave the mall, which is when the police began to get physical.

Register went on to say that Jackson “pushed or swung at” the police officer while he was “physically attacked” by his aunt. Both were taken into custody with Jackson being released to his father later that day. Jackson was charged with felony obstruction and misdemeanor criminal trespass and disorderly conduct, while his aunt was charged with felony obstruction and misdemeanor criminal trespass, disorderly conduct, and providing a false name to law enforcement, according to the Journal-Constitution’s report.

Register did promise that there would be a full internal investigation into the officer’s actions and did voice concern that this incident could cause division in the community, saying “We’re in this together and we’ve got to work together.”