Two Chicago cops have been relieved of their police powers after a woman said officers pulled her from a car by her hair and placed a knee on her neck last weekend.
The action by police Superintendent David Brown came a day after the Civilian Office of Police Accountability recommended the action as it investigates the alleged incident at the Brickyard Mall at 2600 N. Narragansett Ave. on Sunday.
Mia Wright, 25, said she had gone to the mall with family and friends not realizing it had been closed because of looting. While in the parking lot, she said officers surrounded her car, broke the windows with clubs and pulled her to the ground.
“I was trying to get out with my hands up. They continue to break the window, and before you know it I was being pulled out of the vehicle, pulled by my hair,” Wright said at a news conference Thursday. “The officer grabbed me. I had my hair tied in a bun. He grabbed me by the top of my bun and pulled me out of the vehicle. And that is when they threw me on the ground, and he proceeded to put his knee in my neck.”
The Cook County state’s attorney’s office has said it is reviewing her allegations in collaboration with the FBI.
The use of kneeling to restrain someone in police custody has been under scrutiny nationwide since George Floyd died after being restrained in that fashion by an officer in Minneapolis.
“All I thought about was George Floyd, and it could have been another situation like that,” Wright said. “I have anxiety now. I can’t sleep. I had to go to a doctor. I had to go to the emergency room.”
Wright was charged with disorderly conduct and released on Monday, according to police and the family. Her attorney, Nenye Uche, has asked that those charges be dropped.