Discussion: Kids Under Age 11 Slapped In Handcuffs At Tennessee School Over Video Of Fight

[bentobox]

Detention? For 6-11 year olds for NOT fighting? Even that would be outragous.

[steviedee111]

@ncsteve

However effed up Kentucky is, it’s never as effed up as Tennessee when it comes to stuff like this.

Frankly I’m surprised Tennessee police were diverted from harassing or spying on Muslims.

[sniffit]

This is fucking …I don’t have words for once. [insert primal roar here]

[beachgirlinland]

So blown away, I can’t even make a coherent post.

The police response is that if there were problems with these arrests, they would do something?

[mpower1952]

Exactly! Don’t they realize the harm they have done to those innocent children. How can they justify arresting the kids who may have watched the fight and leave the fighters alone? What am I saying. Justify?

And now they will use the excuse for not showing the tape by claiming they are protecting those same children.

Shame, shame, shame on them!

[tecmage]

@native8merlynder

Why were there no adults (teachers) supervising?

The fight was at a pick-up basketball game, off school grounds and not during school hours. Why the hell the police got involved AND arrested the kids in school is silly and dangerous. Kids who did nothing wrong were charged with not stopping a fight? I guess if you can’t get them in the system for actively committing crimes.

[richardinjax]

Are these folks aware that if they push this it ends up in front of a Judge? It gets media exposure and elected officials get tagged to it?

I wouldn’t leave this as “nonsense”. Its horribly bad judgement on several planes by the adults involved. It’s cruel.

[doninsd]

A bunch of assholes masquerading as police that have equated fear with respect.

[richardinjax]

This didn’t make sense to me so I looked up a few things. You can be charged with criminal responsibility for the actions of others but the charge is usually lodged at those that egged on not watched the criminal act. In a sense it’s an elegant phrase for accessory before the fact. So, unless that video ( these are misdemeanor arrests and the crime has to be witnessed by law enforcement ) shows those kids provoking a fight between others the charge is bogus and the arrests false. I’m still confused as to how you can be responsible for something after the fact. That’s what the Cops are alleging here.

I’m sure the Cop’s “drop the charges” and a suit ensues. The guy should sue.

[anniew]

If this is allowed, for equal treatment to apply, every time a dugout empties on TV I want handcuffs. And people who don’t actively stop the fight (WTF?) need to be carted off, too.

This is some of the dumbest shit I’ve ever seen and some heads need to roll.

[richardinjax]

Well unless there is a law requiring the kids to stop a fight ( and the risks that go with that ) they broke no laws. If they did not provoke or egg on the fight and are not required by law to stop one they happen across…there is a problem. False arrest. You fix that with the genuine arrest of those that made the false one.

[anniew]

@richardinjax

You fix that with the genuine arrest of those that made the false one

Exactly.

[jeffrey]

I could see bringing them in for questioning if they were HS age and someone had been seriously hurt. But these are elementary age students and they weren’t even involved?

WTF is wrong with the South? In many of these communities, blacks outnumber whites (think of Ferguson and, yes, Missouri is mostly no different from the South), but the communities are run by whites who are often outsiders. It’s almost as if Dr. King and the Freedom Riders never existed.

[stiggy]

Yes. Multitalented and multitasking cops can oppress for more than one reason.

[grandpoobah]

Did the police arrest EVERY child, or just the Black ones? If not, why not? Wouldn’t all children be equally responsible, or is this really just a Black children thing? I’m most saddened because these kids will now have a record that likely cannot be expunged. On the other hand, I’d love to be the lawyer representing them, because the law does not require a bystander to intervene, and it certainly doesn’t expect children to do so. When this is all done I’d go after the cops, and pursue charges of false arrest and imprisonment, because there is simply no statute anywhere that makes them criminally liable for anything. Even if they had joined in the fight we never hold a 6 year old responsible in a criminal fashion for something like that. The only remotely good thing about all of this is that the cops can no long hide behind the illusion that they aren’t racists.