What’s a Cop Supposed to Do?

There was an article on FB yesterday showing a video of a cop arresting a six year old girl, putting her in zip-ties and taking her off to the station, and apparently I’m the only one on this guy’s side in this,

I read the article. According to the article this little girl ‘assaulted’ three adults in the school. I’m going to make a guess and say it was her teacher, the principal and probably another person in the principal’s office. I’m just guessing there though. I was later told that she was throwing a temper tantrum by kicking and screaming. She’s six years old and not a brute of a child, just your average little girl. But she’s been throwing temper tantrums for this long, and they have always worked. I’m willing to bet, when her tantrum wasn’t working as well as she expected, she progressed from screaming, to kicking whoever laid hands on her, to biting and scratching as well.

Now, I’m also told that she was calm by the time the cop got there, but I’m getting ahead of myself here. So, you have this violent child who can’t be controlled by three adults. She scares them enough that they – probably the principal – call the cops. They shoulda called her parents, and maybe they tried, it’s not said, and maybe they should have called the nuthouse at the hospital and had her taken out in a straightjacket rather than zip-ties. In the end, all we have is what they did do – they called the cops.

I’ve watched enough police shows (dramatized I’m sure), and I’ve read enough books where police were involved (also dramatized some I’m sure), and I really like watching those forensic shows where they interview people as they work their way through whatever the crime is to who was ultimately found guilty. I find it interesting, and while writing in that genre is not my cup of tea, I do have a book where a cop plays a prominent background character, so I have done a little research, which included research on how a young person is arrested.

A POLICE OFFICER CANNOT PUT A PERSON IN THE BACK SEAT (unless they’re a ride-along) WHO IS NOT IN HANDCUFFS. That is both to protect the prisoner as well as to protect the arresting officer. I know some, if not most, police cars have a sturdy cage behind the driver’s seat, but there is no mention that this car had that. That doesn’t matter. A prisoner, with their hands free, just might start hurting themselves – scratching their face or pulling their hair out – something a girl might think of doing. She might be inclined to throw herself around the back seat if they had their hands free. I think police officers are required to buckle seatbelts, also for their prisoner’s safety. With free hands, the seatbelt can just go away, and if there didn’t happen to be a cage, little finger could possibly go after the driver’s face and hair causing a wreck. Many scary scenarios come to mind as I picture this drive.

The video shows the girl crying and begging, but still the adults in the school didn’t do anything to stop the arrest. They could have. That officer could have walked in the door, and the principal could have told him, “It’s okay, Officer. We have this under control now.” But they didn’t. In my opinion – my non-cop opinion – this cop didn’t have a choice. He HAD to cuff that child and take her to the station.

One person I argued with said he hoped I didn’t have any kids. I do. I have two boys, and they grew up to be fine, responsible men. I have three grandkids, one is a teenager, and one just starting school. NONE of them were allowed to get away with that kind of temper tantrum, and that’s not to say they didn’t try. They did. I spanked mine and my daughter-in-laws spanked theirs. The temper tantrums stopped long before they went to school.  The person then said he hoped, when my kids or grand kids get arrested, they get hauled away in handcuffs too. I told him, I would expect no less. And then let me get my hands on that kid after the cops were done with her or him. This little girl needed to learn this lesson. Temper tantrums might work with mom and dad, but out in the world, they will only get you into trouble. I’m willing to bet she never throws another one.

I’m told this cop lost his job. That’s too bad. I hope he contests the issue, and maybe he should go for a transfer. If a police chief can fire a man for doing the only thing he could do, he’s not a good chief. Of course, if mom and dad are rich, well, I guess you can buy anything you want, even a cop’s livelihood.