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Chants echoed around the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office as protesters gathered outside the building in downtown Syracuse on Sunday. 

About 20 demonstrators protested outside the office in response to a video that circulated over the weekend showing at least one deputy sheriff using profane and threatening language toward a 15-year-old during an arrest. The deputy pulled the minor out of the driver seat of a car and continued to use profane language throughout the encounter, as the minor pleaded with the deputy to stop. 

Photos accompanying the video show the minor, who is Black, with bruises on his face and neck. 

Demonstrators gathered on the sidewalk and spilled onto part of the street as speakers from local advocacy groups passed the microphone to one another and chanted. Members from Last Chance for Change, RebirthSYR and OG’s Against Violence were all in attendance. 

The mother of the minor in the video, Liza Acquah, also addressed the crowd. 

 “No mother should have to go through this,” said Clifford Ryan, founder of OG’s Against Violence and a member of the Citizen Review Board. “And I’m not going to lie to you. When I saw (Acquah’s) son crying and pleading for his life, I shed a tear. And my tears were twofold. It was tears of hurt and pain, and it was also tears of frustration.” 

 He then gestured to a demonstrator’s sign displaying a picture of Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis police officer, kneeling on the neck of George Floyd. Chauvin’s killing of Floyd sparked nationwide protests this summer. 

Derek Chauvin’s killing of Floyd sparked nationwide protests this summer. Gabe Stern | Enterprise Editor

 “Because we continue to go through this,” he said.

The minor’s arrest occurred around 4 a.m. on Wednesday following a pursuit related to a stolen vehicle that ended in Oswego County, the Onondaga County Sheriff’s office said in a statement to The Daily Orange. The incident is under investigation, the spokesperson said.

After opening the vehicle’s door, the deputy yelled at the minor, who was sitting in the driver’s seat with his hands up, to “get the f*ck out of the car.”

“Please don’t do this to me. Don’t kill me,” the minor says at one point while off-camera.

“Shut the f*ck up,” a deputy replies. “Get your f*cking ass up off the ground, motherf*cker.”

After about 90 seconds, a white deputy reached into the vehicle and turned off the camera. 

Acquah sued the city of Syracuse and the Syracuse Police Department in 2018 after a school resource officer allegedly used excessive force on her other son, Jabari Boykins. At Sunday’s protest, she said she feels like her family is “a target to any type of law enforcement.”

“Those words that were coming out of my son’s mouth —  ‘Please don’t kill me,’ ‘Stop hurting me’ —  all this stuff that you saw in the newspaper, and you heard in that video, that was crazy,” Acquah said. “Put yourself in my shoes as a mother.”

 While the county’s internal affairs unit has reached out to her, she said she will not communicate with them before her lawyer gets involved.

Boykins and the minor who was arrested showed up at the sheriff’s apartment toward the end of the protest. The 15-year-old was on crutches and had bruises on his face. He took a picture with the protesters and talked with a few of them afterward.

 “This can’t happen no more,” Acquah said. “I’m tired. I’m so tired.”

Published on November 15, 2020 at 10:07 pm

Contact Gabe: gkstern@syr.edu | @gabestern326