Evidently no age is too young for police to use excessive force. As you know, Tamir Rice was 12 years old when Ohio police shot him dead for playing with a toy gun. In two recent cases, School Resource Officers have been caught on video violently subduing students, including one 14-year-old. Then there’s Ahmed Mohamed, the 14-year-old student arrested for building a clock after authorities believed it resembled a bomb. Now a police officer at a Michigan school has arrested a 7-year-old black child with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) for misbehaving in class.
On Oct. 12 Chrystal McCadden was called to Flint, Mich.’s Brownell STEM Academy to pick up her son Caden. When she arrived she saw Caden standing by himself in a hallway handcuffed with his hands behind his back. McCadden reportedly asked Caden to be freed only for the officer who handcuffed him to say he couldn’t find the key for the cuffs.
McCadden, who said the school didn’t do much until the case got media attention, was reportedly told the officer threatened to handcuff Caden if he didn’t sit down. However, Flint Police Chief, James Tolbert, said the officer restrained Caden with handcuffs as he appeared, “intent on injuring himself, as well as repeatedly assaulting others.”
Tolbert later told NBC, “I have apologized to the mother for this situation and assured her that we will protect the integrity of this investigation and will be transparent in our findings. It is our model to engage children in a positive light that will foster trust and respect, this incident does not reflect positively on that model.”
[via New York Daily News]
