Video shows officers handcuffing a shrieking 11-year-old at gunpoint By Wat if ... on December 14, 2017
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Police were scouring a neighborhood in Grand Rapids, Mich., for a 40-year-old attempted murder suspect. Instead, in a moment that has cast a harsh spotlight on this western Michigan city, an officer found himself pointing his gun at — then handcuffing — a screeching 11-year-old girl.
The 45-second video clip from an officer’s body camera, made public by the city’s police department this week, was full of outrage-inducing elements: a petrified preteen who started shrieking when she heard the click of handcuffs; a police use of force with racial overtones; a law enforcement agency already criticized in March after an officer pointed a gun at black youth who had done nothing wrong.
The most recent incident happened Dec. 6 on the northwest side of Grand Rapids, according to Grand Rapids NBC affiliate WOOD.
Officers were searching for a woman named Carrie Manning, who was suspected of stabbing her younger sister. Instead, at a nearby home, they encountered Honestie Hodges — the suspect’s niece — who was walking out the door on the way to the store with her mom and another aunt. Manning is a 40-year-old white woman, according to the news station. Honestie is an 11-year-old black girl.
The officers asked the two women and Honestie to approach separately, then handcuffed and questioned them all. But the most controversial clip involves officers’ treatment of the girl.
The video released by police picked up as Honestie approached a pair of officers with her arms raised. One pointed a gun at her.
She appeared to be coming too fast for the officer’s liking: He began to tell her to put her hands on her head, then instructed her to turn around and walk backward toward him.
Her mother, in the background, yelled for the officers to stop: “That is my child!” she screamed. “She’s 11 years old.”
The moment intensified when Honestie reached the officers. One told her to “put your right hand behind your back” and ratcheted open a pair of handcuffs. Honestie began whining, then screaming in terror: “No. No. No! No!”
One of the officers handcuffing her tried to calm her: “You’re not going to jail or anything,” but the screams continued as the video clip ended.
“I didn’t know what was going on,” Honestie told Grand Rapids Fox affiliate WXMI after the incident. “I didn’t do anything wrong. I’ve never got in trouble by the Grand Rapids Police. I used to want to be a Grand Rapids police officer, but ever since that happened, I want nothing to do with them.”
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Poster Comment:
Some things are simply beyond comprehension.