In Jasper, Texas, a town with a history of racial unrest, two white police officers have been fired after they were captured on video slamming a black woman's head into a countertop and wrestling her to the ground at the police headquarters, <a href=Yahoo reports.
Keyarika "Shea" Diggles, 25, was brought to the jail on May 5 for an unpaid fine, according to [the woman's attorney, Cade] Bernsen. He said she was on the phone with her mother trying to arrange to get the $100 owed when Officer Ricky Grissom cut off the call.
There's no audio on the video, but Diggles and Grissom were apparently arguing when Officer Ryan Cunningham comes in behind Diggles and attempts to handcuff her. When she appears to raise her hand, Cunningham grabs Diggles by the hair and slams her head into a countertop. The officers wrestle Diggles to the ground before dragging her by her ankles into a jail cell.
"She got her hair pulled out, broke a tooth, braces got knocked off … it was brutal," Bernsen said …
The officers' firing comes 15 years to the week after an infamous hate crime in Jasper, a town of about 8,000 people two hours northeast of Houston. James Byrd Jr., a black man, was tied to the back of a pickup by three white men and dragged for several miles until he was decapitated.
"The more things change, the more they remain the same," Jasper City Council Member Alton Scott said of the city's racial troubles.
Read more at Yahoo News.