‘Sons of Anarchy’ Actor Tommy Flanagan Bashes Cops in Viral Arrest Video

Tommy Flanagan, who played Filip “Chibs” Telford on Sons of Anarchy, joined the growing outrage against a video showing Coral Springs, Florida police punching a teen girl.

“If they don’t have the ability or training to control a 14 year old child, what are these scumbags doing in uniform?! ‘Serve and protect,’” Flanagan wrote.

The video went viral after a woman named Victoria Cedeno shared it on Instagram, claiming the 14-year-old in the video is her cousin. “My 14yrs old cousin which is a girl should not have been handled this way,” she wrote on Friday.

It earned more than 5,000 views on Instagram, but attracted even more attention after it was shared on Twitter. The tweet Flanagan shared has over 15,500 retweets and the video has more than 436,000 views.

The teen’s mother, Jessica Dennis, who did not want her daughter identified, told CBS Miami that the officer punched her daughter because she “back talked him.”

“I’m pissed,” the mother said. “I’m angry. I would never expect this to happen.”

The woman who shared the video said it was taken after her cousin and other teens were asked to leave the Coral Square Mall.

“I’m not going to comment on the criminal aspect of the case,” the mother’s attorney, Meeghan Moldof, told CBS Miami. “But to say that the police officer was justified to punch her continuously while he has his knee on her back and her hands under her belly, it’s speaks for itself.”

The Coral Springs Police Department shared its own version of events on Twitter, claiming the video “shows only the end of the story, not the incident in its entirety which led up to the arrest.”

According to police, mall security called them to report “unruly teens” who were “harassing patrons and causing a disturbance.” One mother told an officer her 5-year-old child was pushed by one of the teens.

The teen who was arrested was also “seen striking” another teen customer, according to mall security. Security asked the officers to issue a “trespass warning and bar the teens from the mall.”

Before they left the mall, officers were called for another incident because the teens they previously asked to leave the scene returned. One of the male teens was arrested without a problem, but the female seen in the video “began cursing, attempting to incite the other teens,” police said.

Police said the female was resisting arrest and officers “took her to the ground attempting to get her to release her fists.” According to the statement, she had to be “struck in the side to release her clenched fists” and was then handcuffed. While trying to get her in the patrol car, the teen “violently kicked” one of the officers.

Police said there is no investigation into the officers’ actions, but said Dennis could file a formal complaint.

Photo credit: Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images