The Baltimore, Maryland mother who was caught on video forcefully confronting her would-be rioter son at the onset of civil unrest this week says she had a very good reason for her actions.  She didn’t want him to be grievously injured by police.

The video shows Toya Graham instantly recognizing her teenage son, despite his black mask and hoodie sweatshirt, and whooping him about the head until he gets the point and leaves the front lines. 

“That’s my only son at the end of the day,” said Toya Graham, a single mother of six.  “I don’t want him to be a Freddie Gray,” referring to the questionable arrest that led to days of growing civil unrest in the eastern American city just an hour’s drive from the capital Washington, DC.

Freddie Gray died in hospital of a severed spine a week after Baltimore police arrested him.  The violent episode was caught on video by angry residents who have long complained of police abuse.  As Gray screams in pain, they pick him up and drag him to the squadrol, his legs dragging lifelessly behind him. 

Across the country, African American families are grappling with having to talk to their children, especially sons, about how to deal with police if they’re confronted with arrest.  Instead of teaching kids that the police are there to “protect and to serve”, black families are teaching kids how to avoid getting killed.

“You can talk blue in your face to your children, but at the end of the day they gonna make their own decisions,” Ms. Graham said, speaking in the local vernacular.  “As parents we just have to follow through to make sure that's where they supposed to be at.”