Fort Worth police drop charges on mom, daughter in Facebook live arrest

(CNN)Fort Worth, Texas, authorities have dropped charges against a mother and daughter whose arrests were recorded on Facebook Live video.

Moreover, the policeman who detained them has been suspended without pay for 10 days, as well as a guy was issued a citation for Assault by Contact, authorities said Thursday.
    Brea Hymond, 46, and Jacqueline Craig, 19, had initially been charged with interfering with public responsibilities and resisting arrest, investigation or transportation. Those charges came from a event on December 21, when Fort Worth Police Officer William Martin reacted to your report that the man neighbor had attacked Craig’s 7-year old son.
      The statement of the fell charges arrived soon after Craig’s lawyers released video that is apparently the policeman’s own body camera footage of the arrest at Merritt Law Firm.
      Fort Worth authorities remark about any links it might have had to the charges being dropped or wouldn’t confirm the credibility of the body camera video.

      Arrests posted on Facebook live

      The arrests were recorded on cell phone camera and posted to Facebook Live, causing the event to be reviewed by Fort Worth authorities and begin an internal issues investigation.
      The video started accusations of racism and police misconduct. Craig and her kids are black, while neighbor and the policeman are white.
      In the video, Craig tells the policeman that her son said he was grabbed and choked with a neighbor, after identified as Itamar Vardi. Vardi said trash had thrown on the floor, Craig says in the video.
      “Why don’t you teach your son not to litter?” the policeman asks Craig.
      “He can’t prove to me that my son littered,” Craig says. “But it will not matter if he did or did not, it does not give him the right to place his hands on him.”
      “Why not?” the policeman answers.
      The problem escalates, as Craig starts shouting in the officer and takes offense in the line of questioning.
      “If you keep yelling at me, you’re gonna piss me off, and I’m gonna put you in jail,” he says.
      “OK,” Craig says.
      The policeman subsequently proceeds to detain Craig, and members of the family go to intercede. The policeman pulls out her daughter to the floor and wrestles Craig and a stun gun and places them under arrest.

      Authorities reaction

      A day following the arrest, Fort Worth Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald admitted criticisms of the means by which the policeman managed the event.
      “Obviously, when we have an incident where there is some type of assertion that a juvenile has been inappropriately touched, injured, whatever, that should take precedence,” Fitzgerald said in a news conference.
      “And for the 99.9% of our police officers in this police department, that would have handled that case differently, I thank them,” he said.
      The Office of the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney said it agreed together with the decision to drop charges against Hymond and Craig.
      “It is our opinion based on the facts that no felonies took place related to this incident,” the District Attorney’s Office said.
      Martin has appealed his suspension, authorities said in the statement released Thursday.
      “The Police Department recognizes we must work to repair the fractured relationships in our community,” Fort Worth authorities said. “We are committed to ensuring all Fort Worth police officers live up to restoring the trust you have lost in our department.”

      Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/26/us/fort-worth-arrest-video-facebook-live/index.html