The Sacramento P*olice Department has released a series of videos to defend the c*ontroversial a*rrest of a 12-year-old black boy who was handcuffed, pinned to the ground and covered with a “spit mask” as he repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe.
The April 28 i*ncident came to light in recent weeks after a cellphone video from a bystander went viral on social media. That video, as does the newly released p*olice body camera footage, shows o*fficers handc*uffing a boy as he repeatedly curses at them and asks why he’s being a*rrested.
After he s*pat on one of them, the c*ops p*inned him to the g*round and placed a white s*ack over his head. The boy was heard s*aying multiple times, “I can’t b*reathe,” but the s*ack was not removed until he was placed in the back of the c*ruiser.
P*olice said they i*ncident began when two o*fficers saw the boy running from a private security guard and they stopped their c*ruiser to help. The guard told them the boy had been shoplifting across the street.
Anti-spitting socks are used by law enf*orcement and healthcare providers to prevent exposure to d*iseases transmittable through saliva. MDS Associates, a New York-based supplier of personal protective equipment, describes its anti-spit mask as “highly breathable.”
But the a*rrest has drawn outrage in the community and among critics of p*olice b*rutality as the agency still recovers from the sh*ooting of Stephon Clark, an una*rmed black man who was k*illed by p*olice in his grandmother’s backyard in March 2018.
The juvenile in last month’s a*rrest was eventually released to his mother and c*ited with b*attery against a p*olice o*fficer and resisting a*rrest.
“Our o*fficers involved in this i*ncident appropriately used a spit mask to protect themselves and defuse the situation,” Sacramento P*olice Chief Daniel Hahn said in a news release Wednesday. “I am grateful that our o*fficers were willing to proactively intervene when they observed s*uspicious activity, and that nobody was i*njured during this e*ncounter.”
Despite Hahn’s praise for his o*fficers, the department has launched a review of the i*ncident.
Attorney Mark Harris, who works for the same law firm that represents the Clark family, told the Sacramento Bee he’s representing the boy’s family and will be filing laws*uits.
“The kid’s a good kid,” he said. “He’s a small, slight kid, he’s under 4-foot-8 and he weighs less than 80 pounds… He’s a little bitty kid. None of this should have come down the way it did.”
The videos show several bystanders surrounded the o*fficers and repeatedly questioned why they were a*rresting a child. The boy calls the o*fficers r*acist and also asks them multiple times what he did wrong.
“What am I under a*rrest for?” he said as he was being handc*uffed. P*olice did not appear to respond.
When he was p*inned to the g*round, one of the o*fficers was heard referring to him as a “little t*errorist.”
After his mother arrived at the scene, she immediately demanded answers.
“That’s my baby,” she was heard saying. “He’s only 12 years old. Why does he have a bag over his head?”
Watch the video HERE
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