The now-viral video of Alisa N. Hackett, 18, being forcefully body-slammed and punched in the face by an Arkansas state trooper is the latest example of the disparate violence leveled at Black girls and women.
Research has shown that Black girls face disproportionate rates of excessive force and punishment by law enforcement officers and teachers.
The encounter, captured on law enforcement dashcam footage, of Arkansas state trooper Moisses Arellano threatening, roughly handling, and punching Hackett as she begs him to contact her mother has drawn widespread criticism on social media. NEA Report, first reported the violent encounter and released the dashcam video that went viral on social media.
Significance. In the August 1 video, Arellano pulled Hackett over around 10:42 p.m. and claimed she was going 11 mph over the speed limit with the hazard lights on. Arellano noted she was not wearing a seat belt, her license plate was covered, and there was a bottle of liquor on the front passenger seat.
Out of concern for our audience and out of respect for the family, The Emancipator has elected not to repost the video. Those who wish to see the uncensored video released by police can do so here.
The video shows Arellano speaking to a colleague who claimed they had given her a warning for similar offenses days earlier. Arellano claims that he decided to arrest Hackett instead of giving her a citation.
Hackett stepped out of the vehicle and complied with Arellano as she asked: “Sir, what did I do?”
Seconds later, as he attempted to handcuff her, he slammed her to the ground as she repeatedly insisted that what he was doing was “illegal” and that she needed to “call her mama.”
Arellano said he didn’t give a “f***”, kept giving her instructions to turn around and comply so he could place her in handcuffs.
At that point, Arellano punched her in the face and continued to demand she listen to his commands.
Hackett cried out, “You cannot punch me,” while sobbing and repeatedly asking to call her mom.
He told her, “I’ll punch you again if you don’t f***ing turn around.”
Hackett eventually turned herself onto her stomach, and Arellano hand-cuffed her.
After Arellano gets Hackett off the ground in the video, she says, “You can’t punch me in the face,” to which he replies, “Says who?”
Hackett is now suing Arellano for using unnecessary force. She is represented by attorney Ben Crump.
“Alisa asked him what she had done, and the video shows what she got for asking. Arkansas State Police have to explain to the public how that is a reasonable response to a teenager at a traffic stop. If you cannot handle a teenage girl without taking her to the ground, cursing at her, and punching her in the face, you should not be wearing a badge,” Crump said in a statement.
Overlooked angle. Scholarly research on myriad other incidents has shown that law enforcement officers have a racist pattern of using excessive force against Black teenage girls.
A 2017 report found that teachers and police officers disproportionately use excessive force when reprimanding Black girls. Data from the report conducted by the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality showed that Black girls were viewed as less innocent and more adult-like compared to White girls of the same age, leading to disproportionate rates of punishment in education and juvenile system settings.
The researchers trace this adultification and racist use of excessive force and punishment to racist ideas of Black girls as overly sexual, physically aggressive, or having an “attitude.”
“These stereotypes underlie the implicit bias that shapes many [adults’] view of Black females [as] … sexually promiscuous, hedonistic, and in need of socialization,” researchers Jamila Blake, Rebecca Epstein, and Thalia Gonzalez wrote in their report. “Teachers may subconsciously use stereotypical images of Black females … to interpret Black girls’ behaviors and respond more harshly to Black girls who display behaviors that do not align with traditional standards of femininity in which girls are expected to be docile, diffident, and selfless.”
The power structure. In some school settings, Black girls are met with excessive force by school resource officers.
Viral videos of similar incidents show Black teenage girls getting violently slammed to the ground by law enforcement officers.
In a video that went viral on social media in 2015, a police officer in a South Carolina school was caught on camera throwing a 16-year-old Black girl to the ground before reportedly arresting her. Videos of the incident show the officer wrapping his arm around her neck, flipping her desk, and dragging her across the floor.
The officer was placed on leave and later terminated after a full investigation of the incident.
Other incidents include a 2025 video that circulated on social media and showed a school resource officer throwing what appears to be a Black teenage girl to the ground when breaking up a fight at a high school in Charlotte, N.C.
The teenage victim in the video was taken to the hospital and treated for her injuries after the incident.
Following an investigation of the incident, the officer was suspended for two days and removed from his post as a school resource officer.
