Chicago woman says cop pulled her from car by her hair, knelt on her neck
Mia Wright compared the assault by police to George Floyd, saying they treated her like 'some type of animal'
A Chicago woman says she and her family were targeted and assaulted by police as they left a shopping plaza on Sunday afternoon.
[griojw id=”4Tvs6gWr” playerid=””]
A Chicago woman says she and her family were targeted and assaulted by police as they left a shopping plaza on Sunday afternoon.
Mia Wright told The Chicago Sun-Times that she and several other family members were sitting in a car when police ran up to their vehicle with guns drawn, breaking windows, and ordering them out. Wright, her mother, aunt, and cousin Tnika Tate, a funeral director, were all aggressively pulled from their car.
READ MORE: Latin gangs attack Black Chicago protesters in effort to assist police
Wright says an officer pulled her from the car by her hair and put his knee on her neck.
“For an officer to sit there and put his knee in my neck, the same reason people are protesting nearby in the first place because of what happened to George Floyd, I think it’s all related,” Wright said. “And I want justice, they should know not to do that, especially not to women. They handled me like I was a man like I was some type of animal or something.”
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3ZuyOfTmcLfkxzqMdftiCV
Video of the encounter was posted to Twitter by another cousin of Wright, Adrienne Gibbs-a journalist. In the chaotic video, women can be heard screaming.
My cousins pulled over for Chicago police at brickyard yesterday at 1 pm and police bust the windows out, pulled one out by her hair. Glass got in her eyes. Police took one of my cousins and took the car. They left her mother and my other cousin – the driver – in the lot. pic.twitter.com/PqxpSfF463
— Adrienne Spinning Side Kick Gibbs (@AdrienneWrites) June 1, 2020
“I’m okay, a little sore, bruises and scrapes,” Wright said of the traumatic encounter. “I’m real frightened. I don’t even want to see the police. I’m terrified of them at this moment. I have so much going on in my mind, I’ve never been in this situation, never been locked up.”
She got glass in her eye during the incident and says that she sat handcuffed to a bench for over an hour before she was transported by ambulance to a nearby hospital.
READ MORE: Chicago Mayor Lightfoot on Trump tweet: ‘What I really want to say begins with F and it ends with U’
Chicago police arrested Wright and charged her with disorderly conduct and seized her car leaving her relatives stranded. In an email to the Sun-Times, police said that Wright was “observed by responding officers assembled with 3 or more persons for the purpose of using force or violence to disturb the peace.”
She disputes that account saying she never got out of the car.
Have you subscribed to theGrio’s new podcast “Dear Culture”? Download our newest episodes now!
