Police State Out of Control: Criminalizing Bad Behavior of School Children

5-year-old Cuffed, Charged with Battery on Cop

December 4, 2011

Natural News - There is no question that police officers in the United States have one of the toughest, most dangerous jobs around. But it’s hard to imagine an instance – any instance – where a cop feels so threatened by a child barely past the toddler age that he or she needs to forcibly restrain them.

Five-year-old Michael Davis, who attended the Rio Calaveras Elementary of Stockton, has a behavioral problem. According to his mother, Thelma Gray, he has been medically diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD. His behavior is inappropriate at times, and he is a handful.

School officials, in an attempt to change Michael’s behavior, wanted him to meet with the school’s police officer, in an attempt, a local media report said, to scare him straight.

Only, when Michael and the cop, a Stockton, Calif., police lieutenant, met at a room in the school, the meeting didn’t go well. Michael, the cop said in his report, “he pushed my hand away in a batting motion, pushed papers off the table, and kicked me in the right knee.”

When the boy wouldn’t calm down, the officer – a police lieutenant – zip-tied his hands and feet and hauled him off to a nearby psychiatric hospital in the back of a squad car, all without calling Michael’s mom or dad. It gets worse. Michael was officially charged with battery of a police officer. The kid is five years old.

The juvenile court judge at least possessed some sanity in dismissing the case, but what lesson has this conveyed to a young, impressionable, mentally needy child – that it’s easier for society to punish him for his problems than help him cope with them and become a productive member of society.

With this kind of mentality, it’s no wonder the U.S. has the largest per capita population of prison inmates in the civilized, industrialized world.

13-year-old Handcuffed and Arrested for Burping in Class

December 2, 2011

Daily Mail - A 13-year-old was handcuffed and hauled off to a juvenile detention for burping in class, according to a civil rights lawsuit filed against an Albuquerque public school principal, a teacher and a city police officer.

The suit was filed on Wednesday, the same day the district in New Mexico was also sued by the family of a seven-year-old autistic boy who was handcuffed to a chair.

The unnamed seventh grader was arrested last May at Cleveland Middle School after he ‘burped audibly’ in his P.E. class, according to the Albuquerque Journal.

‘Criminalising of the burping of a 13-year-old boy serves no governmental purpose,’ the lawsuit said.

‘Burping is not a serious disruption, a threat of danger was never an issue.’

The lawsuit alleges the boy was transported to the juvenile centre without his parents being notified.

It also says he was denied his due process rights because he was suspended for the rest of that school year without ‘providing him an explanation of the evidence the school claimed to have against him.’

He was not allowed to call witnesses or defend himself against the burping allegation.

The boy was never charged. He scored a two on a scale of one to 10 according to a risk assessment given by the jail staff, 10 being extremely dangerous.

It also details a separate incident this school year when administrators became suspicious because the boy had $200 in his pocket.

He claimed it was because he was going to go shopping after school, but administrators accused him of selling pot to another student.

The boy asked to call his mother; instead, they forced the student to strip down to his underwear while five adults watched.

He was not charged with any crime related to that incident either.

A spokeswoman for Albuquerque Public Schools said she had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment.