Mom in toddler tussle video says she went into defense mode
A mother who had her toddler yanked from her arms by New York police in a widely seen video said in an interview published Sunday that she went into “defense mode.”
“In my head, I told myself they’re not going to let me leave,” Jazmine Headley told The New York Times. “I was so afraid. I was combative with my thoughts.”
The video captured the chaotic scene that unfolded Dec. 7 as officers tried to remove Headley from a crowded Brooklyn social services office, where she had sat on the floor for two hours because of a lack of chairs.
Police were called when she refused a security guard’s order to leave. Headley told the Times she was sitting on the floor with her back against the wall and talking to her son, who was in a stroller. She said she refused, pointing out trash and recycling bins against the wall on the other side of her son’s stroller.