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A video showing Sacramento police placing a "balaclava" on the head of a 12-year-old boy during an arrest sparked new criticism of a department already in office. under surveillance after the death of Stephon Clark, a black unarmed man shot dead. by the police in March 2018.
Although the arrest took place in April, the video has gained popularity in recent days as the boy's lawyer has drawn attention to the case and the family has asked for an apology and a departmental investigation. The bee of Sacramento reported Tuesday that the police had launched an extensive review of the case.
Police said in a statement that the boy spat an officer during his arrest on the evening of April 28, which led them to use a mesh hood that would prevent him from continuing. The boy was handed over to his mother as a result of the incident, but he was cited for violence against a police officer and for resisting arrest.
A family lawyer claims that the boy did not justify his arrest and that the use of the hood was extreme.
"I do not think it's appropriate to put a bag on that child's head even though that child was spitting on that officer," said Mark T. Harris of Ben Crump's law firm, who represented also Clark's family.
[Sacramento police officers who fatally shot Stephon Clark will not be charged, prosecutor says]
Harris stated that the boy "had visions of Eric Garner in the head" while he was under the bonnet of the pin, a reference to an unarmed black man who died in 2014 after being placed in a smothered by a member of the New York Police Department, whose demands for "I can not breathe" have become a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement.
"It should not have happened, it should not have gone that far, and I want justice done, I want justice done to African American girls and boys," said the boy's mother , LaToya Downs, according to a subsidiary of Sacramento CBS.
The Washington Post does not name suspects under the age of 18 unless a judge or magistrate has ordered that they be tried as adults.
Spit hoods are used to protect agents from the fluids that can be projected by people under arrest, but critics say that they are dehumanizing. A debate over their use in Britain lasted several months after it was decided in February that London Metropolitan Police officers would be able to use them, the BBC reported. In December 2018, police in Berkeley, California, said she was considering using hoods to spit during arrests.
The 25-minute video, posted on the Black Lives Matter Sacramento page on May 7, shows part of the incident.
It all starts when the boy is detained by two officers, a fast food chain employee and a man who appears to be a private security guard, against the wall of what appears to be a Wienerschnitzel hot dog restaurant. The boy repeatedly asks why he is arrested and calls his mother when an officer puts him in handcuffs. He struggles and is finally pulled to a police car by an officer and the guard, while he and a passerby ask that his parents be called.
About two minutes after the beginning of the video, we see a police officer's back as she wipes her face. The boy says, "Yes, I spit on it."
The boy is then forced to lie on the floor, where he must lie on his stomach. More officers arrive and one of them places the hood on the boys' heads while the passers-by object to it. The hood stays on his head while he is placed in a police car.
Black Lives Matter Sacramento founder Tanya Faison told The Washington Post that the video was filmed by an adult, a friend of the boy's family, and delivered to the chapter by the boy's grandmother.
A video of the police corps police released by the department Wednesday describes the incident more closely. The boy breathes quickly and asks why he is arrested. "You can not do that … Let me go!" He said to the officers. About three minutes after the start of the video, a spitting sound is heard.
"C & # 39; [expletive] that, "said a female officer. "He just spit on me."
Harris denied the spit on the agents.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn said, "Our officers involved in this incident have appropriately used a pin mask to protect themselves and defuse the situation."
The videos do not show what led to the arrest of the boy. Harris said the boy was attending a carnival nearby with his sister and an adult chaperone that night, and that the adult had asked him to change cars for the fair. The boy complained, but Harris said that a security guard became suspicious and pursued him.
In a statement released Wednesday, police announced that two patrol boats had seen the boy fleeing in front of a security guard near the intersection of Del Paso Boulevard and El Camino Avenue and had gone help.
Faison said the latest incident would further undermine trust between the Sacramento police and the city's black community. In March, county officials announced that there would be no charges against two officers for shooting at 22-year-old Stephon Clark, a father of two, in his grandmother's garden.
The decision sparked a new wave of protests and California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) called for a "systematic change" in the state's criminal justice system. The state assembly is also considering legislation to redefine the circumstances in which the police are justified in using deadly force.
"It was amazing to me," she said about the video, "and at the same time, it was not."
Read more:
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