© WBAL-TV
A 13-year-old Baltimore girl needed 10 stitches in her head after a police officer hit her with a baton in an altercation caught on video,
WBAL-TV reported.The video, released today, shows the encounter between the officer and the girl, identified as Diamond. A photograph taken after the incident last October shows a bandage on Diamond's head and bloodstains on her Vanguard Middle School shirt. Two of her relatives, who also attend Vanguard, were also involved. The name of the officer involved in the incident has not been released.
Footage shows Diamond's cousin, identified as Starr, talking to the officer after walking down a stairway. The officer then grabs her by the arm and pushes her against a wall and seems to hold her by her hair at one point.
"The officer was hollering at her and said, 'Little girl, get down here,'" Starr's grandmother, Vanessa Ward, told WBAL. "And so Starr said, 'My name is not little girl, it's Starr.' Starr came on down the steps, and Starr said that's when the officer grabbed her."
Starr's sister is then seen approaching the scene and arguing with the officer after finding out that Starr was involved. Diamond is then seen trying to step between the officer and Starr.
The officer lets Starr go and begins chasing Diamond.
The officer then draws her baton and hits Diamond, who is backed against a wall with her hands up.
Neals said that the school did not tell her that her daughter had been hurt by the officer. Instead, she said, she found out from paramedics.
The officer was also seen using pepper spray against the other two girls as they were being restrained by a school official. All three girls had to be hospitalized.
"The officer kind of comes from behind and reaches around and sprays them multiple times in the face with pepper spray," the family's attorney, Jared Jaskot, said. "It's disgusting."
Comment: Researchers have also found that watching television actually has a negative effect on cognitive function and damages the brain structure in children. Watching television - police state induced stupidity at it's best.