Baltimore mother praised by police for dragging son out of riots

Toya Graham was filmed attacking her 16-year-old son Michael and berating him for joining in violent street protests

The Guardian, Staff and agencies, Wednesday 29 April 2015

Toya Graham is seen slapping her 16-year-old son, Michael, and berating him

 for taking part in the Baltimore riots

A woman captured on video slapping her teenage son for taking part in the Baltimore riots, a reprimand that went viral online, won praise from the city’s police commissioner and was heralded on social media as “mum of the year”.

Toya Graham was videotaped by Baltimore television WMAR on Monday chasing a teenager, clad in a hoodie with his face covered, beating him and demanding he “take that fucking mask off”.

Graham was identified by CBS News along with her 16-year-old son, Michael.

In an interview she said she pulled her son away from the crowd because “at the end of the day, I don’t want him to be a Freddie Gray”.

“I’m a no-tolerant mother,” she said. “Everybody that knows me, know I don’t play that. He said, when ‘I seen you’, he said, ‘Ma, my instinct was to run.”’

Graham said she had seen her only son wearing a hoodie and mask amid the protesters demonstrating just hours after a funeral for Gray, a black man who died after suffering an unexplained spinal injury in police custody.

“At that point, I just lost it,” she said. “I was shocked, I was angry, because you never want to see your child out there doing that.”

Graham said she and her son watched news coverage of the riots together. And then the images of her reaction went viral. Comments started appearing on her son’s Facebook page, many in support of her, she said.

“Friends and everybody making comments and saying, ‘You know, you shouldn’t be mad at your mother, you should give her a hug,”’ Graham said.

The police commissioner, Anthony Batts, praised her as “one mother who grabbed her child who had a hood on his head and she started smacking him on the head because she was so embarrassed”, the station reported.

“I wish I had more parents that took charge of their kids out there tonight,” he said.

The woman’s insistent pursuit of the boy went viral online, and it won applause from the Fox News contributor Charles Payne, who called her “mom of the year” on Twitter. His comment was marked as a favorite by hundreds of people.

Graham hopes her moment in the spotlight will also be a teachable moment.

“And by him seeing everything what’s going on I just hope, I’m not sure, but I hope that he understands the seriousness of what was going on last night,” she said.

Protesters display a flag as demonstrations continue over

 Freddie Gray’s death in Baltimore police custody. Photograph: 

JM Giordano /Guardian

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