Over a year later, the Montgomery County Police Department in Maryland released the body cam video of officers interacting inappropriately with a 5-year-old boy. According to the department’s YouTube page, the video of the incident from last January already has over 275k views and was posted on March 26.
The harrowing experience began when a school official asked the police to assist with a student who left the campus and did not wish to return, reported CNN. Once officers caught up with the child, a cavalcade of mental health experts has called emotional abuse unleashed. They could be seen and heard on camera berating and yelling at him. They told him that he is going to be spanked when his mother finds out what he did.
As the child began to cry, the officers added another layer to their hostility.
“I don’t wanna hear it. I don’t wanna hear it. You better stop,” said Officer Kevin Cristmon to the student as he lifted the crying boy into the patrol car. A second officer, Dionne Holliday, then asked the boy twice if his mother spanks him.
“She’s going to spank you today,” she said. “I’m going to ask her if I can do it.”
Later in the video, the boy’s mother, Shanta Grant, participated in verbally frightening the child with talk of beatings.
She yelled at her sobbing son, “How many times I gotta talk to you? You want me to keep beating your ass?” Officer Holliday looked on in amusement. At one point, an administrator told the mother that she is allowed to abuse her child physically.
Shortly thereafter, Cristmon handcuffed the boy and suggested that he might end up in jail if he continued to behave poorly.
Dr. Allison Jackson, Division Chief of the Child & Adolescent Protection Center at Children’s National Hospital, called the adults’ behavior in the 51-minute long video emotionally abusive.
In January, Ms. Grant filed a lawsuit against the officers and the district’s board of education for harassment.
The family’s attorney said that while they did know about the handcuffing, they were not aware of the behavior the child was subjected to before his mother showed up. In the complaint, it is alleged that the child believed the police would take him to jail. It is unknown if the nature or content of the complaint will be amended with the release of the body cam footage.
This incident is another in a long line of unnecessarily aggressive police behavior towards children for non-criminal actions. Back in February, a 13-year-old was choked by the police in a case of mistaken identity.
