Miami police choke unarmed black teenager holding puppy (VIDEO)

Over one year after the shooting death of Trayvon Martin in Florida sparked a national debate about race, another unarmed black teen in Florida appears to have been brutalized.

Cell phone footage shows Tremaine McMillian, a 14-year-old, being choked and restrained by Miami police. What provoked the dramatic police response? Apparently, not much. Police told CBS Miami that McMillian gave police “dehumanizing stares.” Huh. They also accuse McMillian of clenching his fists and appearing "threatening when he walked away," according to CBS. 

Tremaine, whose mother captured the incident on her cell phone camera, is struggling to understand how a stare could warrant this violence. Worse, he was holding a puppy during the attack.

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“I don’t like it. I feel sad. [A police officer] got in front of me on the ATC and he slammed my hand. Then he started choking me," he told CBS. "Then my 6-week old Pit Bull mix named Polo got hurt and bruised his front paw when the police grabbed me and slammed me down. It makes me feel sad.”

The case also highlights what seems to be a longstanding, major disagreement between some police officers and locals over how minors should be treated by the law. In another recent, controversial case, a teenager was killed by a police officer in Brooklyn after the teen allegedly pointed a gun at the officer. However, witnesses said that the police officers were dressed in plainclothes and failed to identify themselves as police before the teen took out his weapon. 

Watch a video of the Tremaine McMillian attack below: