To be outraged that US police handcuff small schoolkids who have SN / disability - to PUNISH them

[BigChocFrenzy]

e.g. police handcuff 8 & 9-yr oldss*
This little boy is crying & distressed, saying it hurts. He is 3'6", 52 lb and suffers from ADHD, so this armed cop hero is punishing him:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NKwxcuDxDgA

75% of all children physically restrained by police have SN or physical disabilities.

US police are also very violent in schools to NT kids of colour too,
e.g. Police bodyslam & KO 12-yr-old girll*
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=GRdCCJng

What's the age of criminal responsibility in the US?

I think it varies across states

From as low as 6 yrs old

unicef.org says
"In the US, the age of criminal responsibility is established by state law.
Only 13 states have set minimum ages, which range from 6 to 12 years old.
Most states rely on common law, which holds that from age 7 to age 14, children cannot be presumed to bear responsibility but can be held responsible"



I had to physically restrain a 9yo once. His mother had called us as he was physically attacking her and she wasn't strong enough to stop him. It took two officers and the mum to restrain him, he was the strongest little thing I'd ever seen. We'd tried all the communication we could, he was destroying her/their house and had been attacking his mum, she'd called us in hysterical tears, it was one of the most unsettling things I've ever attended. (He had undiagnosed adhd and she was desperate for help, she was under cahms I think but awaiting a diagnosis.)
We didn't cuff him. We just had to physically restrain him. He was throwing things at us, brandishing a broken snooker cue at us when we arrived, and was kicking and punching us when his limbs weren't being held. Oh and biting. It took hours for him to calm down.
I'm sure us being there and trying to restrain him was making it worse for him, the poor thing, but what should we have done? He was trying to hurt people. His mother wanted us to take him away to begin with, but once he'd calmed down I think she agreed to stay with him and I think the people who took over from us organised an emergency appointment with cahms?

But we weren't doing anything to 'punish' him.
I haven't watched the video, so I'm sorry if this is irrelevant, I'm just trying to offer another perspective.

I was curious why the police were talking to a child of that age at all. Let alone the rest which again would have a teacher fired and arrested.

Many US school districts have their own police departments (quite separate from the municipal or sheriff's agencies) so a uniformed presence in the school corridor is not an unusual thing.

YNBU. I just pray they're as tough with the real criminals ie Rapists, peodophiles, murders, burglars ect.
Children with ADHD are not naughty. They have a condition. All the restraining in the universe is not going to make.one iota of difference

jay it should but it often won't, parents of children with additional needs often have very real concerns about violence being used against their children in schools yet they are rarely listened to.

I know a few parents who got fobbed off with perfectly reasonable positive handling explanations went away happy until sometime later something turns up compleatly changing their mind, it's incredibly hard to get anybody that matters to listen to you when the victim cannot comunicate effectively and the perpetrator is a professional unless other professional witnesses come forward.

DontBuyANewMumCashmere The video shows this was nothing like your case
The little boy was not dangerous
A big armed police officer was deliberately using handcuffs to punish him for disobedience.
In many US schools, the police are on site and are basically used as corporal punishment whenever a child doesn't do as told.
They choose to use maximum force to control even small kids with SN, instead of talking them down.

In the US, most adults know police use violence and coercion as their first reaction to anybody not immediately obeying orders.
They must obey instantly or get hurt (unless rich & white)
A little boy with ADHD doesn't know this and can't sit quietly when told.

Thise handcuffs were a 15 minute timeout punishment for a little buy with ADHD.
They hurt him, so 15 minutes of corporal punishment.
A parent would be arrested for that
But I suppose at least he didn't use his gun.

The other armed policemen slammed a 12-yr-old NT girl onto concrete, knocking her briefly unconscious and bruising her face. The aim is that the violence stuns the child, so they can eaily be handcuffed.
Noone here would approve of any parent who was that violent in controlling an unruly child

I've never seen anyone be cuffed above the elbows like that before. That did look painful, and to make him sit like that for 15 minutes. It's just abusive and wrong.

Thanks for explaining that BigChoc that sounds disgraceful. I can't understand why that is acceptable. As you say if a parent did this they would probably be arrested

Small children are handcuffed above the elbows because their wrists are far too small for handcuffs.
Handcuffs are designed to fit adults, not little kids.

Yeah the US is fucking backward - it's a terrible mix of 'first world' self belief and 'third world' reality.

Crime, poverty, race issues, social problems, underachievement in education, violence etc affect huge swathes of the US population.