14 DAY TRIAL // The mother of the child taken into protective custody after a video of him swearing and flashing his middle finger to the camera went viral, claimed she was trying to offer her son a thug-free education and that the clip, that outraged an entire nation, was made without her consent.
The video posted by the Omaha police, in which a toddler in diapers was taunted and provoked by adults to retaliate in an aggressive, gang-like manner went viral and sparked an entire debate on the conditions in which children are brought up in thug cycles.
After being taken into the care of social services, the child and his 16-year-old mother together with three other kids are to be placed in foster care. Ennisha Devers, the mother of the bad-mouthed child, is now defending her son's upbringing claiming that she was struggling to offer him a good education despite the tough environment in which they were living.
After several investigations, it was revealed that the toddler was injured in a gun shooting taking place into his home and that his 17-year-old father was killed in a gang-related incident. The children from the house were living in highly dangerous conditions after the family got involved in shady gang operations.
“This is 100% about a criminal culture, a cycle of poverty, a cycle of lack of education, a cycle of lack of parenting and – dare we say “a thug cycle” - that is literally killing families and crushing the futures of innocent children across Omaha,” the statement of the Omaha Police Officers Association read, according to Daily Mail.
The video, found on a gang member's Facebook page started an entire controversy. The Black Men United in Omaha Association retaliated and said that because of the posting of the video the child was abused twice, once by the adults in the video and then by the police officers association that made the footage public.
Ennisha Devers is trying to reunite with her son and is hopping to be placed in the same foster home in order to have her child close to her. She admitted to living in a gang-related environment, but reinforced that her parenting skill were appropriate and that she was struggling to educate her son and had nothing to do with his vulgar language and behavior displayed in the video.