A 29-year-old mom in New York City caught her young sons stealing money out of her purse, so Tyeesha Mobley had an idea. Why not call the police, and see if they’ll send an officer around to help explain why stealing is wrong, and has serious consequences? So that’s what she did. She certainly never expected to be the target of one cop’s racial abuse. And she definitely did not expect to be arrested and lose her children into foster care.
But that is exactly what happened, according to a lawsuit filed by Mobley, and reported by the New York City news site DNAInfo .
In fact, the out-of-control cop called Mobley a “black b***h,” and physically roughed her up before slapping cuffs on her as her two sons, ages nine and four, could do nothing but watch their mom be abused and humiliated by a police officer, as they cried, “Stop, you’re hurting mommy,” according to the lawsuit.
“She was simply trying to make sure her son stayed on the right path,” attorney Philip Sporn told DNAinfo . “This shouldn’t happen to anyone, let alone to a good mom with her kids.”
Here’s what happened, back on April 16 of last year.
After she caught her nine-year-old stealing $10 from her purse, Mobley called the police and asked if an officer could stop by and help teach her children a lesson. The police department were obliging, sending not one, but four officers to meet Mobley and her boys at a nearby gas station.
The meeting started off just fine. The nine-year-old confessed to stealing, and the police let him know that was a bad idea.
“Three officers was joking around with him, telling him, ‘You can’t be stealing; you’ll wind up going in the police car,’ ” Mobley testified at a hearing last October.
But the fourth officer, for whatever reason, resented the assignment and suddenly, he launched into a racist tirade.
“You black bitches don’t know how to take care of your kids,” he said, according to the lawsuit. “Why are you wasting our time?… Why don’t you take your f*****g kid and leave?’ ”
Mobley started doing exactly that, but before she could get out of there, the suit says, the cop told her she was under arrest. When she asked what for, the officer told her, “If you’re going to say another f*****g word, I’m going to knock your teeth down your throat.”
The officer then shoved her against a car, kicked her legs, and put her in cuffs.
But the worst result of what Tyessha Mobley thought was an innocent, well-intentioned call to the police, was that the two boys were taken away and placed in foster care for four months — with a family that spoke no English.
The four-year-old suffered a nasty burn and the older boy experienced several asthma attacks while in foster care.
Did her boys learn a lesson about stealing? That remains unclear, but it seems certain that they learned that calling the police for help can be hazardous to your health .
[Images: Facebook via DNAInfo ]