A man has been charged by prosecutors in western Ohio after a viral photo showed him kneeling on the neck of a 2-year-old child while another man held the toddler down.
The man is said to be mocking the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in a similar way back in May at the hands of the Minneapolis police.
Child endangerment
On July 22, WHIO reported that the Clark County Sheriff's Office said that the assailant, 20-year-old Isaiah Jackson, has charges filed against him and the reviews are pending. He is now in custody after he violated probation.
On July 21, the authorities started the investigation when they saw the picture of Jackson. The picture had the caption "Blm now mf". It immediately circulated online and was passed around different social media accounts.
Crime Online published the picture and blurred the face of the toddler for protection and privacy reasons, but according to the authorities who first saw the photograph, the child was crying when the picture was taken.
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The authorities presented the case on July 22 to the Clark County Prosecutor's Office. They then provided a determination on the scope of the felony charges against Jackson, according to Lt. Kristopher Shultz.
Lt. Shultz said that the cops talked to the child, the child's mother, and Jackson. The child was then taken to a hospital for throughout examination and fortunately, the child did not sustain any injuries from the horrific incident.
Lt. Shultz also said that after the interview, the mother of the toddler said that she was not aware that the picture was taken by Jackson and that he knelt on her child's neck. She only found out about it after other parties told her.
Despite the context of the picture and the caption, the Clark County officials did not associate the incident to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Similar incident
This is not the first time that someone went viral for mocking the death of George Floyd. Back in June, a group of white men mocked Floyd's death in front of Black Lives Matter protesters who passed by Franklin Township in New Jersey.
As shown on the footage, trucks decorated with banners supporting "MAGA" and President Trump was seen behind the men. It also showed a black and white American flag with a single blue line, which is used to support Blue Lives Matter.
A barrier with a sign that says "All Lives Matter" was also seen. The video clip has since garnered over a million views on Twitter and the men had been identified.
All of them had been fired from their respective workplaces, and one of them previously worked for the New Jersey Department of Corrections, according to NBC10.
The organizer of the protest, Daryan Fennal, said that the men showed that racism is still alive and it is real in the United States. The action of the men was condemned by the mayor and the police chief. In a joint statement, they stated that they were saddened and appalled by their actions.
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