WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The Cleveland police’s use of pepper spray to disperse protestors at a Black Lives Matter rally over the weekend is the latest example law enforcement unfairly targeting African-American youth, US advocacy group Mothers Against Police co-founder John Fullinwider told Sputnik on Monday.
"We want to make it clear that Black Lives Matter means action to protect Black lives from arbitrary arrest and detention, police violence, and police use of deadly force,” said Fullinwider, whose group participated in the “preventative action.”
The minor was later released to his mother, but not before police pepper sprayed activists as they attempted to block the police car. Videos of the incident went viral on social media.
“It is a new day in America as far as letting the police mistreat Black youth,” Fullinwider added.
US advocacy group Greater Cleveland Cop Block founder Deo Odolecki claims that the Cleveland police’s use of pepper spray was the result of panicked police officers.
“My personal opinion of the events is that it was an overreaction, of course, and at a time, when police brutality is at its peak, officers with short fuses don't need to be sent to these kinds of calls,” Odolecki said.
Odolecki said there are many different ways police could have responded to the incident, but unfortunately this was not the first time such a use of force had occurred and is likely not to be the last.
The inaugural three day Black Lives Matter conference in Cleveland took place Friday to Sunday, gathering some 1,200 participants who discussed social justice issues.
The United States has seen multiple protests prompted by high-profile and well-documented cases of police brutality, some of which took place in Cleveland.
