Cops To Kids: You're Never Too Young To Be Handcuffed
from the 'must-be-this-tall-to-ride-this-cruiser'-policy-repealed dept
Time for another reading of that children's literature standby, If You Give A School A Cop.
If you give a school a cop, you create criminals. Cops are trained to deal with criminals, not elementary school students. They can receive additional training before accepting the position of "School Resource Officer," but that additional training seldom thwarts ingrained instincts.
But sometimes, something magical happens, and that "kids should be treated like criminals" training carries over to the streets, as it did in Portland, Oregon.
Three girls were involved in a fight that stemmed from a drug deal gone bad someone tattling on someone else for drawing on their desk. This fight took place off-campus at the local Boys & Girls Club.
Feeling that it's never too early to teach kids that violence is never the answer, a Portland police officer immediately broke up the fight and contacted the parents arrested one of the nine year-old participants six days later.
Here's what happened shortly after the fight:
Chris Partlow told 'Snoop' to take the other girl out.
Both girls apologized to each other. Staff members found no obvious injuries on any of the girls, they told police.Problem solved, or if not solved, then at least addressed. But then a parent got involved and claimed that this girl had shoved her kid up against the wall and injured her. Despite there being no physical evidence to back up this claim, the police responded with all the alacrity missing from the scene six days earlier.
The 9-year-old was sent home and suspended from the club for one week.
They cuffed her, brought her to the station, took her mugshot and fingerprints, and justified it all because this nine year-old appeared to be nervous and her story was "inconsistent." On one hand, it could be that she was trying to cover up her
BECAUSE SHE WAS NINE.Now, with the backlash hitting, the DA has dropped charges and the parents are filing a complaint. The police, however, have performed a quick investigation and found the participating officers did nothing wrong.
A Kansas City "resource officer" apparently viewed this story as a challenge, rather than a cautionary anecdote. (via Reason)
A Kansas City second grader said his school treated him like a criminal Wednesday by placing him in handcuffs simply because he was misbehaving.Kalyb is seven. Do they even make handcuffs that can secure a seven year-old's wrists? And if they do, why?
"Some of the kids were messing with me," second grader Kalyb Primm Wiley said of what started the incident.
He said after his classmates teased and taunted him, he started screaming but never got physical with other students or teachers. And when the teacher couldn't calm him down, he said a school security officer took him to the principal's office like a criminal.
"We were halfway down the hall, he put handcuffs on and twisted my wrists a little," Kalyb said.
When his father showed up at the school's front office, Kalyb was still in handcuffs.
Speculation on Twitter suggests they might be custom made.
@MeatWiggleLife @RKTlaw @TimCushing Don't step on my joke!!! pic.twitter.com/ASwS3qaxtt
— Scott Greenfield (@ScottGreenfield) May 8, 2014
A district spokesperson sided with authority (as usual) and claimed nothing here violated school policy. Handcuffs make us safer, said the spokesperson in not exactly those words, even if our policies and resource officers make us collectively stupider and more brutal.
These may be outlying events but they're far from rare.
- A Delaware State Trooper felt he needed to "investigate" the theft of $1, possibly involving a third-grader and a fifth-grader. He interrogated both, turning the older kid against the younger one until obtaining a confession.
- Seven students were arrested for a water balloon fight.
- A five year-old with ADHD had his hands and feet zip tied by a school resource officer when he wouldn't calm down. The child was charged with "battery of an officer."
If they're not making child-sized handcuffs yet, then it only proves that those involved in the law enforcement accessory field are sleeping on a growing market. Administrators who hand the reins of enforcement over to men and women used to dealing with hardened criminals and actual danger are going to find that it's incredibly hard for these "resource officers" to dial back their reactions. But as long as "policy" is followed, who cares what happens to kids who misbehave?
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: arrests, handcuffs, kids, law enforcement, police
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Repeat after me:
A district spokesperson sided with authority (as usual) and claimed nothing here violated school policy.
If rent-a-cops and/or children dressed up in uniforms with badges(because if that's the sort of reaction that any 'threat to their authority' causes, it's pretty obvious they never actually grew up) can treat kids that young, in that fashion, and not 'violate school policy', it doesn't mean that nothing wrong happened, it means the policy is completely screwed up.
If a teacher, or other member of staff wouldn't dare do something for fear of being sued into oblivion and/or fired(and 'well I slapped some cuffs on little Timmy because he wouldn't calm down' would certainly fall into that category), then the resident 'we don't feel like doing our jobs, so we hired a few cops to do it for us'-badge wearers shouldn't get a pass either, 'policies' or not.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Repeat after me:
ha ha, a little gallows humor, right ?
but, these days ?
not so sure it is a joke anymore...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I suppose it's just another step in assimilating our society into conformity. I've long worried that schools are teaching children to conform rather to then to love learning.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
What do you American call them? Zip-ties? If they'll fix a few 3mm power cables together, they'll bind a child wrists.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Minimum Age Laws
This means that kids could murder someone and they would not be criminally prosecuted: all because they have no idea what they're doing. I don't usually say this, but in this instance I'd say that our laws are better than yours.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Minimum Age Laws
Once the child reaches 14 the presumption is that they are then absolutely responsible, though they are still classified as a child under all state/federal laws and then a 'young person' at age 16. Only at that magical age of 18 do they then find out that responsibility becomes of huge importance in civil/criminal matters.
Children cannot even be arrested (let alone cuffed) if they are known to be under 10 either, though they can be reasonably restrained from hurting themselves or others.Not a situation that any LEO likes being placed in especially when Child Community Services (state equivalent) MUST be informed/called ASAP.
Interestingly the defense of infancy laws (doli incapax) which show the age of criminal responsibility are all over the place in the USA depending on what state you live in. Some are as low as 6 (WTF!!!!!) whereas most are 7. Only in Federal crimes does the USA meet any international standard setting the minimum at 11 yrs old.
Though what do you expect from a country that is only one of two in the worlds that has not ratified let alone signed the UN Rights of the Child treaty. Somalia is the other country.. nuff said
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Minimum Age Laws
am sorry but if they ever tried that on my kid, I would return the favor in the most unpleasant manner possible. hello human pretzel...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
...wait that statement actually works for this article.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Actually it's exactly more of the same. With the "Think of the children!" mantra some moron decided that it was a good thing to make kids open to criminal charges and another even worse moron (possibly the same) decided it's a good thing to put full-fledged police officers to deal with children mischiefs. Of course nothing could go wrong.
But hey, think of the children!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Wait! Where are the charges for this horrific destruction of property? I'm pretty sure replacement desk sales are funding terrorists!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
When the law over reacts...
Now that the children are beginning to experience the police state at a younger age it will make it easier to talk them into rebelling against authority.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: When the law over reacts...
The pessimistic view is that Draconian enforcement from an early age will condition them to obeying authority without protest, and to thinking of that as the "normal" situation - "the way things should be".
An analogy to children of abusive parents might not be inappropriate. It's not always anything remotely like easy to talk such children into rebelling against their parents...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: When the law over reacts...
But, its not hard to get kids to rebel as they do this quite naturally, its the adults that get complacent in their cozy prisons.
Kids are easy to fool, hit them right in the heart and bam... suckers!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: When the law over reacts...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: When the law over reacts...
Apart from a few dozen people executed after the Nuremberg trials, there were only innocent victims everywhere.
It will be the same with the Fourth Reich that the U.S.A. is currently building internally and externally.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
You need to take some comprehension classes.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
If cops would stop doing things that deserved knocking then few would be knocking them.
Kinda like when the police tell you to stop breaking the law, and the police will stop harassing you. Heard that one before?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
I think you need to dial back your "pro-cop even in the face of wanton stupidity" rant and start using something that is missing from both the officer and his handlers: common sense.
For crying out loud, these are KIDS you asshole!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
Look up the word "proportionate" in the dictionary of your choice and get back to us.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
LOWEST number of kops killed by firearms since 1887...
that's a fact... do you have any ?
thought not...
now, tell me ALL THE INCIDENTS of kops being shot by kids in their elementary schools in ALL OF HUMAN HIS STORY, asshole...
dog damn i hates me authoritarian pricks like you...
heh, while you're at it, tell me how many dirty kops klean kops have shot in the last, i don't know, FOREVER...
what's that ?
none ?
huh, ain't that weird: i mean, the thin blue line of liars, hypocrites and coopers shoot dogs, kids and innocent bystanders ALL THE TIME, yet not one dirty kop takes a slug...
what are the odds...
(except i bet the very few REAL, CLEAN boy scout kops get sent out -a la serpico- to be set up to be shot, huh, pig boy ? )
art guerrilla at windstream dot net
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
I see we've got a fan of zero tolerance/zero thought policies here...
'Zero thought policies, not just for incompetent school administrators/teachers anymore!'
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
I'm so sick of you "zero tolerance" idiots who can't seem to make any kind of decision based on critical thinking. Yes, we must apply handcuffs to ALL NINE YEAR OLD SUSPECTS because OMG, the history around the number of police officers killed in the line of duty by 9 year-olds supports it!
The fight was over, jackass! And again, if the big, bad, retarded cop thinks a 9-year old in this situation is a threat, then he's a fucking moron who has no business being around kids at all.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
FTFY
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Any chance to knock a cop.
A lot of cops.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Fuck, but you're an asshole.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Response to: Anonymous Coward on May 13th, 2014 @ 6:27am
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Response to: Anonymous Coward on May 13th, 2014 @ 6:27am
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
The U.S. is the country of disproportionate response. Internally, externally.
They are the Western Taliban.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
It can't be much fun living in a state of terror that somewhere there's a nine-year-old who hasn't been cuffed yet for back-talking to a teacher.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Abuse of law officers
If every teacher instead were equipped with a gun, they could just shoot undisciplined pupils dead in self-defense and no harm done.
I am sure that this solution will immediately be embraced as the appropriate and measured way to arrive at peaceful classrooms by all American education institutions it is presented to.
In completely unrelated news, my personal no-tolerance policy does not allow me to visit nations where the rules governing public life are written up by psychopathic lunatics, so I'm not likely to be able to personally oversee the success of my proposal.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
handcuffs
I believe you need a specialty shop for those.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Welcome!
It's getting pretty damn awful here any more.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
My 2 year old bit me...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Which is it?
Are they kids or adults?
Make up your goddamn mind!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Man, you got something here!
No more need for corporal punishment dirtying your own hands: you just get them a CIA interview on the suspicion of biological warfare.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anyway, I guess standard-issue handcuffs work well enough for it? Either that or kid-sized handcuffs are old news.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
This story makes no sense and is obviously completely fabricated...
:)
On a serious note... this is why I send my kids to private school... at least I have some recourse when stupid crap happens....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: This story makes no sense and is obviously completely fabricated...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: This story makes no sense and is obviously completely fabricated...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: This story makes no sense and is obviously completely fabricated...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: This story makes no sense and is obviously completely fabricated...
I don't know what grade the kid was in, but a 9 year old could easily be in 2nd grade, especially so late in the school year (this happened in May of last year.) Hold them back once, have the birthday during the year, and there you are. Even without being held back, 3rd would be more likely than 4th this time of year.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
getting "tough on crime"
When George Bush ran for governor of Texas 20 years ago, he campaigned on a tough "law and order" platform, and one of his campaign promises (not fulfilled) was that if elected, he would lower the death penalty to the age of 14.
Juvenile crime is indeed lower now than it was 20 years ago, perhaps in part because there is no longer much of an opportunity to commit 2nd offenses. But if fights between 9 year olds are now considered crime, and treated as such, there will no doubt be pressure to lower those police statistics, which usually means tougher penalties.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Which is worse...
So is there really a policy that lets police officers handcuff children? Is a police officer really think a child is such a danger that he needs handcuffs... or that a "policy" says this is okay?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Arrested at 7
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
And maybe it shouldn't.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Arrests Of Children
I read through all these comments on a daily basis and see some views which are rude and unfair. I would be phenomenally grateful if we could restrain ourselves to stop swearing etc.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]