Black Children as Young as Kindergarteners Are Getting Hand-Cuffed and Arrested Across the US: [View all]

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http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/black-children-young-kindergarteners-are-getting-hand-cuffed-and-arrested-across-us



Americans should take a long look in the mirror before criticizing other nations for human rights abuses. The law enforcement system in the United States ranks among the worst in the world in the cruel treatment meted out to its citizens. Even children in this country are not safe if they are black and unlucky enough to interact with the police. Of all the various ethnic and national groups in the United States, only black people have to worry that their child may be pushed through a glass window by officers of the law.

A recent study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology demonstrated what black people have always known. Black children are dehumanized to such an extent that they aren’t perceived as children at all. They are assumed to be older, less innocent and inherently guilty of some wrong doing. Study co-author Matthew Jackson said, “With the average age overestimation for black boys exceeding four-and-a-half years, in some cases, black children may be viewed as adults when they are just 13 years old.” Two recent cases involving the New York City police department show the truth of these words and the perils black people face even in childhood.

Black girls are also at risk of police brutality, as a 15 year-old and a 16 year-old discovered in Brooklyn, New York on March 27, 2014. An altercation between police and a group of teens resulted in one of the unidentified girls being thrown to the ground and another being pushed through a window. There is video evidence of one of the girls with a very deep cut on her face. According to witnesses, the police were not content to push her through the glass and arrest her. They also delayed in providing her with needed medical attention.

“Javier Payne was already under arrest and handcuffed when a police officer shoved him through a store window.”

In the Bronx, New York on May 17, 2014, a 14 year-old boy was also pushed through a window by police and came close to death. As first reported by the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, Javier Payne was already under arrest and handcuffed when a police officer shoved him through a store window too. The police added insult to his injuries when they did not notify EMS of a pediatric emergency, instead calling in the case as if Payne were a drunken derelict. When paramedics finally arrived on the scene they pleaded for Payne to be uncuffed so that they might provide appropriate treatment.