Politics
Crying boy, 5, ‘handcuffed and threatened’ by Maryland cop who says ‘I hope your momma lets me beat you’
DISTURBING body cam footage shows a crying boy, 5, being “handcuffed and threatened” by a Maryland cop.
The officer was seen telling the boy “I hope your momma lets me beat you,” as
Bodycam footage showed cops handcuff a five-year-old boy[/caption]
The child had apparently wandered from school[/caption]
One officer was seen lifting the boy by his arms and shirt as he attempted to sit him down in a chair[/caption]
The video – from January 14, 2020 – was released on Friday by the Montgomery County Police Department in Maryland.
It showed officers at East Silver Spring Elementary as they were called by an employee to help with a five-year-old child “who had left the school grounds and did not wish to return,” police said in a statement.
The child was seen sobbing through the interaction as the officers yelled at him and put him in handcuffs.
At one point, an officer asked the child if his mother spanks him.
“She’s going to spank you today,” the cop said.
One cop was heard saying “I’d beat him so bad” as the child sat in a chair, crying uncontrollably.
The officer then accused the child of “embarrassing” her at school.
An officer told the boy to “shut that noise up” and saying “I hope your momma let me beat you.”
When a woman – apparently from staff at the school – brought a phone over with the child’s mother on speakerphone, he tried to swat it away with his hand.
A cop then went over to the child, lifted him with one hand by the shirt and the other hand on the child’s arm.
The video from January 2020 was taken at East Silver Spring Elementary[/caption]
One officer told the child ‘you don’t get to do what you want to do’[/caption]
At one point, officers put the child in the back of a patrol car as the child sobbed uncontrollably[/caption]
The cop then used his hand and held the child down by the hips as the officer yelled at him to listen to his mother.
As the cops continued yelling at the child, he kept crying so hard he was coughing and choking.
One officer put a handcuff around the child’s wrist as the mom arrived to try and help resolve the situation.
As he placed handcuff on the child one cop asked him if he knows what they’re used for.
The cop said the cuffs are for “people that don’t want to listen and don’t know how to act.
Officers also had tried putting the child in the back of a patrol car before he was brought back inside the school.
As the child wailed, one cop told the child: “I don’t want to hear it.”
When they put the kid in the cop while the boy cried, one of the officers tells him “I would’ve been beaten nine times” if he were in the child’s situation.
“Don’t nobody wanna hear that,” the officer told the child as he kept crying.
The officer told the kid “you don’t get to do what you want to do” and added: “This ain’t your world.”
The boy’s mother filed a lawsuit in response to the way her son was treated.
Mother Shana Grant’s lawyers said the child was treated “as if he were a hardened criminal,” the Associated Press reported.
The mother “hopes that the incident will lead to changes in policy and training, both with the school and the police” attorneys Matthew Bennett and James Papirmeister said in a statement, as reported by the AP.
A complaint was filed to the Montgomery County Police Department after the incident occurred.
Both cops are still employed as an internal investigation has been conducted, police said.
The police department said the findings are “confidential under Maryland law,” and they have no additional comment.
Montgomery County Schools released a statement on the video, but said they “are unable to provide further comment on this incident due to pending litigation.”
“It was extremely difficult for us to watch the video of the incident involving a 5-year-old student at East Silver Spring Elementary School. Our heart aches for this student. There is no excuse for adults to ever speak to or threaten a child in this way,” the statement said.
It added they they know parents expect “safe and appropriate intervention processes” when necessary.
“We have asked MCPS leadership to ensure that the school system’s procedures and expectations are clear to all staff. This incident also underscores the importance of having a team of professionals in all schools to support the diverse needs of our students,” the statement added.
People were outraged at the video.
School workers were standing nearby as the officers confronted the child[/caption]
The child’s mother has filed a lawsuit in response to the incident[/caption]
Montgomery County councilmembers Will Jawando, Hans Riemer and Evan Glass released a joint statement in February calling for the Law Enforcement Officer’s Bill of Rights (LEOBR) to be revoked – and brought attention to it again as they condemned the officers’ actions in the video.
Under the LEOBR, law enforcement personnel are protected from investigation and prosecution while performing their official duties.
“The horrifying incident captured by MCPD body cam involving a 5 year old child is exactly why
@willjawando @hansriemer and I called for the repeal of Maryland’s Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights,” Glass said in a tweet.
“We demand to know when police violate their oath to protect the public,” he added.
“These officers should be fired & we must continue our work to reimagine public safety,” Jawando said in a tweet.
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Cobb said in a tweet: “This is astounding and goes to the point of the dangers of using law enforcement to address non-criminal concerns, especially those that involve minors.”
“In this case, a 5 year old.”
Robin Hood CEO Wes Moore said the video is “beyond hard to watch.”
