Cops handcuff boy, 7, over missing $5, family claims

[Hum]

This kid was no killer ? but some callous Bronx cops sure treated him like one.

Instead of earning himself a simple trip to the principal?s office, a terrified 7-year-old boy was hauled out of class, handcuffed like a hardened criminal and ?interrogated? by police for a grueling 10 hours ? all over a playground dispute involving $5, his family is charging.

?My son was crying, ?Mommy, it wasn?t me! Mommy, it wasn?t me!? I never imagined the cops could do that to a child. We?re traumatized,? Wilson Reyes? distraught mom, Frances Mendez told The Post last night.

?Imagine how I felt seeing my son in handcuffs!?? she said. ?It was horrible. I couldn?t believe what I was seeing.?

The bizarre overreaction by cops came after the child had been accused of swiping $5 from another student after school.

The money, which was supposed to be used for a school trip that never happened, had fallen on the ground in front of Wilson and two other boys, and one of them scooped it up.

Wilson was falsely accused of taking it, and he scuffled with one of the kids.

Officers showed up at PS X114 on Dec. 4 at about 10:20 a.m., and handcuffed and held Wilson in a room there for four hours. They then hauled him off to the 44th Precinct station house for another six hours of interrogation and verbal abuse, according to a $250 million claim against the city and the NYPD.

The boy protested his innocence, to no avail.

?Reyes was handcuffed and verbally, physically and emotionally abused, intimidated, humiliated, embarrassed and defamed,? the documents say. He was then charged with robbery.

Mendez said that she and her sister first went to the station house, they were told they couldn?t see her son.

When cops finally allowed the pair to see the boy, they found the panicked kid seated in a shabby chair with his left wrist cuffed to the wall, Mendez said.

She quickly snapped a damning photo of the scene.

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[shakey]

Police are just big bullies. I hope this lady sues them broke. If they can't do their jobs correctly, they shouldn't even be given jobs to do. The bad thing is, cops don't learn. Until one is actually treated like a regular citizen and held accountable for their crimes; they will continue to harass, demean, belittle, and abuse the people.

When they don't even have the common sense to treat a kid correctly, they obviously shouldn't be in charge with handling any type of person.

[CJ33]

what the heck. Thats just not right.

[Growled Member]

I bet they did all that because he was black.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Wow, that makes a "time out" seem like a walk in the park!

[Rohdekill]

Do you see a kid in the photo emotionally or physically abused? Does he look like he was crying for 4 hours? Does he look at all bruised or roughed up? Does he look terrified to the point where he will be tramatized and require therapy? I sure don't see one.

He was treated no different than anyone caught stealing $5 worth of stuff from a store: Handcuffed, brought in for questioning.

[Richteralan]

Do you see a kid in the photo emotionally or physically abused? Does he look like he was crying for 4 hours? Does he look at all bruised or roughed up? Does he look terrified to the point where he will be tramatized and require therapy? I sure don't see one.

He was treated no different than anyone caught stealing $5 worth of stuff from a store: Handcuffed, brought in for questioning.

Don't know how to respond to this.

Ah let me start with this "a playground dispute of $5". So your analogy of "stealing $5 worth of stuff" is......wrong.

edit: o will you reply "I bet they made him cry just for the photo" if you see a picture of this boy crying with handcuffs ?

[chrisj1968]

I know the source, but Alex does however keep tabs on police abuses

http://www.infowars....nade-swat-raid/

http://youtu.be/5yWaE8tTlsc

I understand people don't like alex but I have watched numerous stories covered by him documenting police abuses

[fusi0n]

Abuse of power

[rfirth]

Don't know how to respond to this.

Ah let me start with this "a playground dispute of $5". So your analogy of "stealing $5 worth of stuff" is......wrong.

This is what happens when you call the police. The principal shouldn't have called the police, but he did and they responded. They can't refuse to respond.

Wilson was falsely accused of taking it, and he scuffled with one of the kids.

If the police were really trying to mess with this kid, they would have charged him with assault instead of just robbery. I'm curious, though, why they weren't investigating the other two children. One of the three stole the money.

An overreaction, sure, but I think the mistake was made by the principal.

[Rohdekill]

Don't know how to respond to this.

Ah let me start with this "a playground dispute of $5". So your analogy of "stealing $5 worth of stuff" is......wrong.

edit: o will you reply "I bet they made him cry just for the photo" if you see a picture of this boy crying with handcuffs ?

As the photo was taken on the spot, without preparation, one would have expected the scene to represent what she claims. Have the two matched, then I would have said she has a valid claim. But, as we can all see, this is clearly another case of the parental BS syndrome.

Second, picking up $5 on the playground, which you know is not yours and taking no attempt to find the rightful owner IS theft. I'm not saying he is the one who stole it, but that is the accusation.

If you feel theft by taking something that you didn't pay for is different than theft by taking something that doesn't belong to you and failing to locate the proper owner, well....I hate to tell you, they both fall under theft by definition of the law.

[Richteralan]

This is what happens when you call the police. The principal shouldn't have called the police, but he did and they responded. They can't refuse to respond.

If the police were really trying to mess with this kid, they would have charged him with assault instead of just robbery. I'm curious, though, why they weren't investigating the other two children. One of the three stole the money.

An overreaction, sure, but I think the mistake was made by the principal.

When you charge the kid because of $5 (even its unsure if he picked it up) it's already messing with him. Adding one or two more charges doesn't change the fact that he's charged.

If the police REALLY want to do their job, they should, as you said, get all three kids.

[theyarecomingforyou]

Do you see a kid in the photo emotionally or physically abused? Does he look like he was crying for 4 hours? Does he look at all bruised or roughed up? Does he look terrified to the point where he will be tramatized and require therapy? I sure don't see one.

WTF?! Nobody deserves that sort of treatment, let alone a kid. This sort of dispute should be handled at the scene by teachers and done so promptly - instead he was held by the police for 10 hours, where he was verbally abused and intimidated. It's truly shocking that you see nothing wrong with this sort of behaviour.

If the police were really trying to mess with this kid, they would have charged him with assault instead of just robbery.

He was held for ten hours, during which he was handcuffed to a wall and interrogated. That would be bad enough if we were talking about an adult but we're talking about a minor here. That is extreme intimidation.

[abysal]

I'll bet 5$ the kid mouthed off like most little s**ts do these days when it comes to authority (I know I'm stereotyping here), and the cops taught him a nice hard lesson. I don't think we're seeing the whole picture here...

[rfirth]

He was held for ten hours, during which he was handcuffed to a wall and interrogated. That would be bad enough if we were talking about an adult but we're talking about a minor here. That is extreme intimidation.

He was accused of punching a kid and taking his money. This is standard procedure for a juvenile arrest. I mean, he wasn't handcuffed to that wall for the whole time.

Second, picking up $5 on the playground, which you know is not yours and taking no attempt to find the rightful owner IS theft. I'm not saying he is the one who stole it, but that is the accusation.

Apparently they said he took it by force. So it didn't just fall to the ground in front of them... he dropped it after getting punched. That's definitely not finders-keepers.

Now, obviously the charges have been dropped, and innocent until proven guilty applies. I'm not saying this is what happened. I'm saying this was the information police were working with.

[Rohdekill]

This sort of dispute should be handled at the scene by teachers and done so promptly - instead he was held by the police for 10 hours...

Since when did teachers become law enforcement? They have one job - to educate. Not to be the police, or perform the job of a parent. If something occurs on school grounds which would, at any other location, be resolved by the police, then you call the police.

School grounds are not some sacred place where teachers are expected to do everything and be everything.

[Billus]

Teach him a good lesson when he's young. None of this "my boy would never do that" bullcrap. Good on the cops for doing their job.

I seldom believe a parents story. More often their not they are just protecting their child and don't listen to any evidence that is brough before them. If they raised their kid properly, this would not of happened (well not at his young age). Sure the principle could have contained the situation within the school, however, we do not know his background and in what kind of stage the boy was in. If he was aggressive then I don't blame the principle for wanting to bring in the cops. Most likely they'll just let the kid go.

His mum should be grateful for them teaching her boy at a young age that stealing and violence is wrong.

[theyarecomingforyou]

Since when did teachers become law enforcement? They have one job - to educate.

You don't need to involve the police for petty disputes between kids. That's just ridiculous, even for America.

[Brandon]

Since when did teachers become law enforcement? They have one job - to educate. Not to be the police, or perform the job of a parent. If something occurs on school grounds which would, at any other location, be resolved by the police, then you call the police.

School grounds are not some sacred place where teachers are expected to do everything and be everything.

The kid is 5. He didn't kill or injure anybody. Honestly, I feel like maybe being sit down with the police would have been more than enough than all this BS

[Brandon H Supervisor]

Since when did teachers become law enforcement? They have one job - to educate. Not to be the police, or perform the job of a parent. If something occurs on school grounds which would, at any other location, be resolved by the police, then you call the police.

School grounds are not some sacred place where teachers are expected to do everything and be everything.

my ass

police should be a last resort period (aka life or death type of situation). a little scuffle/fight over a $5 bill is not something to call the police over. the teachers should be able to handle something like that just fine. scold the 3 kids and send them to the principles office where they'll probably be scolded a little more and given detention. standard, no need to involve the police.

seriously, if this exact situation would have happened on the playground back in the 90's (and i have no doubt it probably did several times) the police would never have been called and it would have been dealt with appropriately

besides all that. so the principle over reacted and called the police. the police took it WAY too far and will probably get in a lot of trouble for it

[theyarecomingforyou]

The kid is 5. He didn't kill or injure anybody. Honestly, I feel like maybe being sit down with the police would have been more than enough than all this BS

Exactly. If the police had simply sat him down that would have been a powerful enough lesson. The police must have something better to do than chain innocent kids to a wall for ten hours. And if schools really think that involving the police for situations like this is prudent then that explains why the education system is such a mess.

[@Leo]

Police retards.

[rfirth]

The kid is 5. He didn't kill or injure anybody. Honestly, I feel like maybe being sit down with the police would have been more than enough than all this BS

Spoken like a true I-didn't-bother-to-read-the-article. Did you even read the title of the thread you're posting on?

Read the title. Ok. How old is the kid again? Details matter.

Since when did teachers become law enforcement? They have one job - to educate. Not to be the police, or perform the job of a parent. If something occurs on school grounds which would, at any other location, be resolved by the police, then you call the police.

School grounds are not some sacred place where teachers are expected to do everything and be everything.

In fact, this didn't even happen on school grounds. I mean, I don't know how. It happened during the middle of a school day. But that last line of the article states it didn't happen at school.

besides all that. so the principle over reacted and called the police. the police took it WAY too far and will probably get in a lot of trouble for it

I agree with you, actually. But not about the police. They didn't treat they kid any differently than they would any other. But from what I remember, I don't think it's normally school policy to call the police about fights unless the fighters are at least 14/15ish. However, the article does state that this did not happen on school grounds, so that is probably a contributing factor.

[theyarecomingforyou]

In fact, this didn't even happen on school grounds. I mean, I don't know how. It happened during the middle of a school day. But that last line of the article states it didn't happen at school.

From the article:

Instead of earning himself a simple trip to the principal?s office, a terrified 7-year-old boy was hauled out of class, handcuffed like a hardened criminal and ?interrogated? by police for a grueling 10 hours ? all over a playground dispute involving $5, his family is charging.

It may not have happened on school grounds but it did occur under school supervision.

I agree with you, actually. But not about the police. They didn't treat they kid any differently than they would any other.

The police shouldn't treat children like that at any time. Heck, when the mother first asked to see her son she was denied, which is outrageous. The police should have asked the kid questions at the scene and then left it at that.

[rfirth]

From the article:

It may not have happened on school grounds but it did occur under school supervision.

I know. I saw. And no, it didn't necessarily happen during school supervision. It could have happened before school. The incident didn't happen at school, but apparently it was handed when he got there.

The police shouldn't treat children like that at any time. Heck, when the mother first asked to see her son she was denied, which is outrageous. The police should have asked the kid questions at the scene and then left it at that.

I'm sure they did ask questions at the scene. And then they arrested him.