Videos of New York City Police escorting a nine-year-old girl from the Museum of NAtural history made waves on Twitter on Friday.
On-lookers told the two officers “You are traumatizing this child” as they lead her down the museum steps.
The child allegedly was denied entry to the museum because she did not have a vaccination card.
The girl, dressed in a winter coat and a white hat, looked distressed and was helped into the back of a squad car.
“Where are you taking her?” called one woman, who filmed the police on her cell phone.
“Just because she refused to show her papers… of her experimental gene therapy,” said the man recording.
Other footage shows five protestors who oppose the vaccination mandate being escorted down the museum’s steps in handcuffs by officers. They had been arrested inside the museum.
“This is your fight, NYPD,” yelled a man watching the crowd. The officer did not respond.
The videos, which appear to have been captured on Jan. 19, were widely denounced on Twitter.
According to Oliya Scootercaster, a freelance journalist, the child’s mother was among those arrested for protesting the mandate at the museum.
Scootercaster also reported that the museum has closed its front entrance hours after the protestors were arrested.
The child’s identity remains unknown. She was referred to as Jayla in a post sharing footage of her reunion with her family on Jan. 20.
The Museum of Natural history made headlines this week after removing the statue of President Theodore Roosevelt, which critics had claimed depicted a "racial hierarchy."
