The first national Black Lives Matter conference took place this weekend, but the peaceful meeting quickly turned left after a transit officer pepper-sprayed a Cleveland, Ohio crowd Sunday afternoon.
According to the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, yesterday (July 26) at approximately 4:40 p.m., transit police officers reportedly detained a 14-year-old male for being visibly intoxicated on a bus. Witnesses claim they slammed the child to the ground in the process, though this bit of information was not included in the RTA's statement. The conference attendees were present during the altercation and presumably surrounded the police car as they tried to back up, resulting in one cop's unthinkable actions.
As shown in the video above, a transit officer pepper-sprayed the burgeoning crowd, "in an attempt to clear the way." What transit officials call "a general burst of pepper spray" left more than a dozen people temporarily blindsided. The 14-year-old - whose name was not revealed due to his age - was released to his mother after she appeared on the scene shortly before 6 p.m.
The RTA states there were no arrests made and the incident is currently under investigation. They claim "the juvenile was intoxicated to the point where he was unable to care for himself."
Source: Huffington Post|RTA
