Texas cops say they followed policy by arresting and handcuffing, processing, photographing, and fingerprinting 11-year-old girl over alleged false fire alarm at school
Texas cops say they followed policy by arresting and handcuffing, processing, photographing, and fingerprinting 11-year-old girl over alleged false fire alarm at school
The sixth grader's parents say their child "wasn't a threat to anyone" and that the whole situation was handled "very unprofessionally."
Well not a lot of details in the article but it is quite possible that they did follow policy. Which doesn't make it better.
' "To this day, we have no information from the school or from the Precinct 3, the Constable," Aaliyah's father, Mark Zarate, said. "No type of paperwork as to what she was charged with. '
If this quote is true I'd expect a citation for the charges pretty soon after if not immediately when picking up my child from Juvenile Detention. Otherwise it would seem like they illegally held my child with no official wrong doing.
So again the article is not detailed but, at this time it doesn't appear that she has been charged with anything. The police are not the ones that issue criminal charges, that is the DA. The police are responsible for arrests and citations.
It appears that she was arrested, processed and released pending charges. The child was definitely not held illegally as there is usually some period of time that someone can be held without charges. Again this feels like overkill in this case, but is protocol.
This is not an issue of police overreach but one of the design of the system.
We were just following orders!
It's the policy. It happened to me too as a kid. On one hand, it can prevent future criminals, giving kids a dose of reality. It's obviously a bit excessive, but it's not terrible either.
On one hand, it can prevent future criminals, giving kids a dose of reality
Though it's conventional "wisdom", it hasn't been proven that excessive punishment lowers recidivism.
In fact, it's been proven to cause trauma, which RAISES the risk of recidivism and acceleration from mischief to more serious trouble.
it's not terrible either.
Wrong. It's abusive and likely to traumatize that poor girl as well as poison her future relationships with all authority figures, including positive ones.
it’s not terrible
Agree to disagree.
Kids + police don't always result in a lesson learned: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/15/aderrien-murry-police-shot-911-family-vows-fight-justice
They're brave enough to arrest children, but not brave enough to intervene when a sicko is murdering them with a machine gun. Tracks for most cops.
Even if true, sometimes specific rules are bad and following them makes you a bastard.
I mean, breaking the law has consequences. People could die in a false alarm situation, or the FD might not be able to respond to an actual fire.
So far the kid hasn't been charged with anything, so being arrested is probably a good motivation to not do that again.
breaking the law has consequences
So does obeying unjust laws
People could die in a false alarm situation
People could also die choking on food. Do you want 11 year olds arrested for cooking?
Seriously though, the severity of the ACTUAL reaction should never be based on unlikely hypotheticals.
FD might not be able to respond to an actual fire.
Another hypothetical. Also something that could happen for other reasons, such as for example road work. Do you want people arrested for doing their job at inopportune moments too?
So far the kid hasn't been charged with anything
Making it an unnecessary and overzealous arrest
being arrested is probably a good motivation to not do that again.
Or to (rightfully) despise and fear cops for the rest of her life. If she's ever in trouble or sees someone else in trouble, do you think her first instinct is to reach out to her abusers for help?
TL;DR: NO it wasn't justified and NO, nothing good will come from it.
Chaotic good. People trying to cause the most chaos possible by following the rules to the line
We were just following orders!
The coward's motto.
This is called the Nuremberg defense bc of the famous Nazi war crimes trial. Many will still use this to excuse German armed forces even today, but it's a myth.
While many, many German soldiers and citizens were executed during the war, not a single one was killed for refusing to participate in war crimes. Many soldiers did refuse and the consequences was shit like being assigned undesirable duties and social reprisals from the other men.
Surely officer Gunt has nothing to prove.
Who the fuck cares? Water they hurt? No? Well I bet they stunt pull another fire alarm.