Moment jeering cops hold down Louisiana boy as his mother beats him with belt

Video footage has captured the shocking moment jeering cops held down a Louisiana boy as his mother brutally beat him with a belt - striking him nearly 40 times over. 

Two Baton Rouge police officers are now under investigation for allegedly helping the mother beat her 14-year-old son in a 2019 interrogation about a shooting.

Disturbing bodycam video, obtained by WBRZ, shows Officers Adam Rhodes and Jermaine Javius not only witnessing the beating but actively participating, holding down the teenager and mocking him while his mother continuously strikes him. 

The graphic, new footage captures Rhodes becoming aggressive when the teen initially laughs off questioning, telling him, 'I'm not your momma, laugh all you f**king want to.'

'That's crazy,' the teen replied in the video.

'No, what's crazy is your level of cowardice,' Rhodes responded.

The officers' involvement came during questioning about a drive-by shooting, with Officer Rhodes pressuring the mother to start the beating.

'You got a belt? Undo your belt. Let's go in the house. I promise I'll hold his arm while you tear that a** up. I ain't kidding at all. Below the waist, don't break the skin - that's what the law says,' Rhodes allegedly said to the mother.

Police Chief T.J. Morse defended the officers, claiming the mother requested their assistance in disciplining her son.

'The mother requested officers assist her to discipline her son. Officers did comply with her request and held the 14-year-old male down on a bed while the mother hit him on his rear with a belt.'

However, the teen's attorney Ryan Thompson disagrees and has now sued the department in several unrelated use-of-forces lawsuits.

'In no situation do courts authorize officers to hold a 14-year-old child down - a victim - in the name of getting information,' Thompson said. 

'What is a police officer's job, and I guarantee you, that post does not teach them to assist in disciplining children, so this notion that officers were in the right, I would totally disagree with it, and I would add that I'm sure, in fact, I know it is not within policy.'

'If this is called assisting in disciplining a child I would say that, if this was my child, I wouldn't want their help, anyone watching this would not want the Baton Rouge police's help,' Thompson said.

'There needs to be attention. There needs to be something done in the treatment of our juveniles and our elderly,' Thompson said.