‘It’s propaganda’: Police pulled Black toddler from family car then claimed he was found lost, attorneys say

‘It’s propaganda’: Police pulled Black toddler from family car then claimed he was found lost, attorneys sayA makeshift temporary barrier created by activists is placed in the street near the 18th Precinct Police Department during a citywide curfew on 28 October 28 in Philadelphia (Getty Images)Police in Philadelphia pulled a black toddler from a car and then claimed he was lost as part of “propaganda”, attorneys representing the child’s family have said.On Wednesday, the National Fraternal Order of Police posted a photo of a child on social media, saying that the toddler was lost during the riots and using the photo to commend the state’s officers, The Philadelphia Inquirer first reported.“This child was lost during the violent riots in Philadelphia, wandering around barefoot in an area that was experiencing complete lawlessness,” the now deleted post reportedly read.However, attorneys of the small child’s family, who have filed a civil rights case regarding the incident have labeled the post “propaganda” and said that the boy was pulled by police from his mother’s vehicle during her violent and unfounded arrest.“It’s propaganda,” attorney Riley H Ross III told The Washington Post. “Using this kid in a way to say, ‘This kid was in danger and the police were only there to save him,’ when the police actually caused the danger. That little boy is terrified because of what the police did,” he said.Rickia Young, a 28-year-old home health aide, had been travelling home in her SUV after picking up her teenage nephew from a friend’s house, her attorneys, Mr Ross and Kevin Mincey told The Post.Ms Young unknowingly took a turn onto a street where police and demonstrators were clashing amidst the protests over the shooting of Walter Wallace, and she was ordered to turn around, the report said.The state has seen successive nights of rioting after police shot to death a 27-year-old black man armed with a knife whose family said he was in the midst of a mental health crisis.As she tried to turn her car in the street, Philadelphia officers surrounded the SUV, broke its windows, and pulled Ms Young and her 16-year-old nephew from the car, her attorneys told the newspaper.A viral video of the incident has shown officers throw Ms Young and the teenager to the ground and then grab the toddler from the back seat, The Post reported. Ms Young and her nephew sustained injuries during the confrontation.Story continues“Her face was bloodied and she looked like she had been beaten by a bunch of people on the street,” Mr Mincey told the outlet. “She is still in pain.”Aapril Rice, the 30-year-old woman who filmed the incident and watched it unfold from her rooftop and told The Inquirer that watching a police officer take the baby was “surreal” and “traumatic.”A day later, the police union made the post on Facebook, which was reportedly deleted not long after The Inquirer contacted the FOP about the post. The FOP did not respond to a follow-up when contacted by the newspaper.“We are not your enemy,” the union said in the post of an officer holding the toddler. “We are the Thin Blue Line. And WE ARE the only thing standing between Order and Anarchy.”Police held Ms Young for several hours during which she was separated from her son, but eventually released her without charges, her lawyers said.The Post said that Ms Young’s grandmother finally located the child on request from his mother, who was still in police custody. “She wasn’t out looting or out doing anything,” Mr Mincey said. “She wasn’t even charged with a crime.”Mr Mincey said the child was found sitting in his car seat in the back of a police cruiser with two officers in the front seats and that his child’s car seat was still scattered with glass from the smashed SUV windows.When contacted for comment on the arrest of Ms Young the Philadelphia Police Department told The Independent that they were aware of the incident and that it is actively being investigated by their Internal Affairs Division.The FOP did not immediately return a request for comment regarding the Facebook post.Read moreEarly voting surges in Philadelphia amid voter intimidation fearsPhiladelphia City Council votes to limit police protest responsePhiladelphia police to release bodycam footage of killing of Black manProtests in Philadelphia after police shoot and kill Black manPhiladelphia victim’s family sought ambulance, not police
Greenwald resigns from The Intercept over Biden articlePulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald said Thursday he had resigned from The Intercept after the US investigative media outlet refused to publish his article critical of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.Greenwald, one of the first journalists to report on the Edward Snowden documents on US mass surveillance, said he was leaving the website he started in 2014 with two other journalists.”The final, precipitating cause is that The Intercept’s editors, in violation of my contractual right of editorial freedom, censored an article I wrote this week, refusing to publish it unless I remove all sections critical of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden,” Greenwald said in a blog post.Greenwald’s article accuses news outlets of pro-Biden bias in their standoffish coverage of corruption allegations against the former vice-president’s son in a recent New York Post story.The Post accused Hunter Biden of monetizing access to his father in improper business dealings in Ukraine. Related: Biden slams Republicans’ Supreme Court priorityTwitter restricted the article’s spread amid questions over the “origins of the materials” on which it relied, including emails apparently sourced from a laptop left by Hunter Biden at a Delaware repair shop last year.Facebook also restricted users ability on link to the article, saying — along with several US news outlets — that there were questions over its veracity. Greenwald, 53, left The Guardian in 2013 to set up The Intercept with the founder of eBay, Pierre Omidyar.He accused it of the “same trends of repression, censorship and ideological homogeneity plaguing the national press.”But The Intercept hit back at Greenwald, dismissing him as “a grown person throwing a tantrum,” and said it was he who had allowed his standards to drop. ”While he accuses us of political bias, it was he who was attempting to recycle the dubious claims of a political campaign — the Trump campaign — and launder them as journalism,” the website said in a statement. Greenwald, who lives in Brazil, shared the Pulitzer in 2014 for his reporting on leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden about mass electronic surveillance programs.tu-rl-caw/ft