A VIDEO of United States police violently tackling a black teenager during a fight with a young white youth has sparked outrage, prompting the state governor to condemn what appears to be “racially disparate treatment”.

The video – posted by the platform Storify and picked up by ABC, CBS and CNN – shows a fistfight between two teenagers at a shopping mall in Bridgewater, New Jersey, a suburb of New York.

After about 10 seconds, two police officers arrive and forcefully separate the teens.

But while the black teenager is violently thrown on the floor by the officer, the young white youth is simply made to sit on a sofa.

A female officer is then seen putting her knee on the back of the young black man as he lies flat on his stomach, while the male officer handcuffs him.

“They basically tackled me to the ground, and then the one – the male officer put his knee on my back and starts putting me in cuffs,” the black teenager, who gave his name as Kye, told ABC.

“And then the female officer came over and put her knee on my upper back too, and started helping putting me in cuffs.”

The clip does not show the rest of the arrest, nor what became of the young white youth who was not arrested.

Bridgewater Township police acknowledged on Facebook that the video has “made members of our community upset” and promised an internal investigation.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy condemned the cops’ action.

“Although an investigation is still gathering the facts about this incident, I am deeply disturbed by what appears to be racially disparate treatment in this video,” he tweeted.

Racism in law enforcement is a lightning rod issue in the US, with black men at much greater risk from police violence than white men.

Viral footage of the police killing of George Floyd, a black man, in 2020 sparked nationwide protests and calls for reform of law enforcement.

Steffie Bartley, Northeast Regional Director of the anti-racist National Action Network, condemned what he calls the “implicit bias” seen in the clip.

“Why was the young black man on the ground with handcuffs, while the young white man was sitting on the couch as if he were overseeing?” – AFP, February 17, 2022.