Justice For Lucca

Submission 7,067

Overview

Justice for Lucca, also known through the hashtag #JusticeForLucca, refers to the response to a video of an aggressively physical altercation between a police officer and a 15-year-old black boy. Cell phone footage of the incident shows the officer pepper spraying the boy and then smashing his head on the concrete ground. Many have accused the police department of using excessive force, particularly in situations that involve people of color. The officer in question has been placed on restrictive administrative assignment; however, many have called for the officer's firing.

Background

On April 18th, 2019, Broward County police officers Sgt. Greg Lacerra and Deputy Christopher Krickovich responded to a fight at a Ft. Lauderdale McDonald's. While the fight had ended before the officer's arrived, as the crowd predominantly African American students, Depute Kirckovich claims he saw a student, known as Lucca, that had been previously told not to return to the area due to prior infractions. He grabbed the student, causing the boy to drop his cellphone. As he reached down to pick up the phone, Krickovich pepper sprayed the boy, threw him to the ground and smashed his head on the concrete in an attempt to subdue and arrest him.^[1]

That day, Instagram user @igetbabies posted a video of the incident (mirror below).

Developments

Online Reaction

That day, Twitter^[2] user @kayweezy23 shared the video and wrote, "Pls retweet this happened at my old high school and I’m trying to track down the cop that did this as wells as spread awareness this is not ok this was two freshman that were maced and slammed to ground for 'suspicious activity.' #justiceforlucca" (shown below, left). The initial post received more than 500 retweets and 300 likes in less than one week.

Following the post, others started tagging reactions to the videos with the #JusticeForLucca hashtag. Twitter^[3] user @TalbertSwan tweeted, "15 yr old Black boy, Lucca picked up a cell phone that fell out of the pocket of a Black boy who was being arrested. In response @browardsheriff officers Christopher Krickovich & Greg LaCerra pepper sprayed, brutally beat, and arrested him. He broke no laws." The post received more than 78,000 retweets, 100,000 likes and 8.46 million views in two days (shown below, center).

On April 19th, 2019, Change.org ^[4] user Sonya Parker launched a petition to fire the officers. As of April 22nd, the petition has more than 41,000 of the campaigns 50,000 signature goal.

On April 20th, journalist Shaun King posted an image on Instagram^[5] of the boy on the ground. The post received more than 202,000 likes in two days (shown below, right).

Professional basketball player LeBron James retweeted^[9] fellow professional basketball player Steve Kerr, who had tweeted about the incident. James wrote, "So wrong!! Hurts me to my soul!! To think that could be my sons. 🤦🏾‍♂️😢. Scary times man." The post received more than 35,000 retweets and 135,000 likes in two days (shown below).

Broward County Official Response

On April 19th, 2019, Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony announced that they would "conduct an open, transparent and thorough investigation into the incident." They posted the announcement on Twitter, where the video received more than 640 retweets, 1,000 likes and 282,000 views in three days (shown below).

Kirkcovich responded to criticism of his conduct by saying, "The three of us were outnumbered by the large group of students who were yelling, threatening us and surrounding us. I had to act quickly, fearing I would get struck or having a student potentially grab weapons off my belt."

Broward County Mayor Mark Bogen called for the officer's firing.^[6] On April 19th, the Mayor tweeted, "The behavior of these BSO deputies is outrageous & unacceptable The officer who jumped the student, punched & banged his head should be fired. I have a problem with the deputy who threw him to the ground after he pepper sprayed him He could’ve easily arrested him after the spray." The post received more than 2,000 retweets and 7,100 likes in three days (shown below).

The assault victim was charged with " assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest and trespassing."^[1]

The officer was later suspended from the force, pending an investigation into conduct.^[8]