A Maricopa man told police that “slavery was a law” after officers stopped his van and found a young child unrestrained and moving around the back seat at highway speeds, according to a probable cause statement.

Artie R. Harrison was arrested April 16 after Maricopa police spotted a white older-model Ford van at the Circle K near John Wayne Parkway and Smith-Enke Road, according to a release questionnaire from Western Pinal Justice Court.

Police said a records check showed the van’s registration was expired and suspended for financial responsibility. Officers then watched the van leave the parking lot, enter Smith-Enke Road without coming to a complete stop at a crosswalk and merge northbound onto John Wayne Parkway, where it accelerated to about 60 mph in a 45-mph zone, according to the statement.

Police stopped the van just south of John Wayne Parkway and Lakeview Drive around 8 p.m.

According to the report, officers found Harrison driving, a woman in the front passenger seat and two small children in the back seat.

While explaining the stop, officers saw one of the rear-seated juveniles pop up into view and then observed a small female child standing in the back seat without a child safety restraint or seatbelt, the statement said.

Police wrote that Harrison told officers the children had been sleeping in the rear of the vehicle. The girl then began walking around the van, according to the report.

Officers said Harrison became hostile when they talked to him about the safety risk and yelled that police could not “tell him how to raise his children.” The report says he then added that “slavery was a law.”

The front-seat passenger, identified by officers as the children’s mother, told police the family has multiple vehicles and she “did not realize” her daughter was not in a child restraint system, according to the statement. Police also wrote that the girl appeared unable to speak and unable to make decisions for herself.

The mother later told officers they had made “a mistake,” according to the report. When asked where the child restraint seat was, she said it was in another vehicle, police wrote.

Officers said no child safety restraint was found in the van and only a seatbelt was observed securing the other child.

Police arrested Harrison on one count of felony endangerment and one count of felony intentional child abuse, both listed as domestic violence offenses on the court form.