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Philly to Pay $2M to Mother ‘Terrorized’ by Police Amid Protests

Rickia Young’s 2-year-old son was famously pictured in a pro-police Facebook post claiming he was “lost” after he’d been pulled from her vehicle.

The City of Philadelphia is set to pay $2 million to a 29-year-old woman who was “terrorized” by police amid protests last year when they beat her and used her 2-year-old son in a disturbing photo op. “This terrible incident, which should have never happened to anyone, only further strained the relationship between the Police Department and our communities,” Mayor Jim Kenney said Monday of the October 2020 incident. Video of the incident showed Young driving through protests in West Philadelphia when more than a dozen officers set upon her SUV and began smashing in windows before pulling her out and beating her in front of her toddler son, who was then photographed with a female officer for a pro-police Facebook post claiming he was a “lost” child.

Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw condemned the incident in a statement, saying officers had “created an environment that terrorized Rickia Young, her family, and other members of the public.” Lawyers for Young have pushed for criminal charges against the officers involved, but District Attorney Larry Krasner on Monday could not confirm that there would be a criminal investigation into the incident. Two longtime members of the department were fired earlier this year for their role in the incident, and disciplinary proceedings against 15 more officers are still pending, the department said Monday.