ACLU on the 7 Year-Old Boy Handcuffed for $5 'Robbery' story

[pokerfan]

Good for the ACLU...

When Reyes' mom was finally allowed to see her son, the New York Post reports, she found him handcuffed to a wall at the NYPD’s 44th Precinct, where she says he’d been interrogated and verbally abused for six hours. The shocking photo she took of her son in cuffs made front-page news on Wednesday.



Another student eventually admitted to taking the money, but it was well after Reyes had spent 10 hours handcuffed, interrogated and humiliated by the police. A police source told the NY Post that officers were responding to "a 9-1-1 call of a robbery and assault."

<...>

That’s why the ACLU – along with the New York Civil Liberties Union, and law firm Dorsey & Whitney – is suing the City of New York on behalf of the city’s public middle and high school students, accusing the NYPD’s School Safety Division of violating students’ constitutional rights.

http://www.aclu.org/blog/racial-justice-criminal-law-reform/7-year-old-boy-handcuffed-5-robbery

[southernyankeebelle]

1. Well he and another were bully this kid more than once and they kept taking his money

and hitting him. The boy told his mother that he and the other boy stopped him and took his money and this kid in the picture hit him in the face. It evidently has happened on more then one occasion.

[Canuckistanian]

2. And this merits a ten-hour interrogation handcuffed?

I'm sorry, but in my world, 7-year olds are not arrested and abused by police.

Maybe things are different in yours.

[southernyankeebelle]

4. I didn't say that. I am just given you the other side also. I don't think the kid

should have been in handcuffs either. I was just trying to give the WHOLE picture. This kid isn't an angel by the way. But neither should he be in handcuffs. But I bet you he won't bully anymore.

[Canuckistanian]

6. My point is, the police don't need to be involved AT ALL

If schools can't handle 7 year olds without calling law enforcement, then maybe it's the schools that need to be questioned.

Cops have ONE mode of dealing with people they arrest. Should children be treated like dangerous criminals?

[southernyankeebelle]

7. I don't think this happened on the way to school. I was reading on another site that the

boy was going to the store to get a snack and drink with his $5.00 his mother gave him. When the kid got home he told his mother. Am not 100% sure but I think that is what I read. The 2 boys have been picking on this kid since the beginning of the year according to boy and they have been taking his money in school also. I don't know the whole story. But hopefully it all works out and the kid won't bully. The kid they have been bulling is heavy. He just wanted them to leave him alone.

[Canuckistanian]

10. Let me make this as simple as possible

Police have no business with 7 year olds. OK?

No ifs ands or buts.

[Orrex]

17. It would indeed be nice if you could make it that simple

No ifs ands or buts.

What if the 7-year-old has a gun or other deadly weapon?

[southernyankeebelle]

29. They do if a child steals, that is no ands, ifs or buts. What do you want to raise a criminal?

I haven't said lock him up but the child must realize there are consequences for your actions. What do you want to do? Say that a boy? You did good? I don't think so. It's $5.00 today and what will it be when he is 16 if he is allowed to get away with it. Am so surprised that people want to give a child (any child not just this story) a pass. I remember once when I was a little girl of 7. I went to the corner store. There was this little .25 cents notebook that was small. I wanted it so I took it and went home. When I got home and my mother saw it she was very upset with me. She didn't hit or yell. What she did was worse to me. She walked me back over to the store and made me give it back to the clerk. When I got home I got the lecture never to do that again. I was so embarrassed I never did it again. The shame was enough. Maybe this child will have learned never to take someone's money again. The approach of the police wasn't right to put him in cuffs. I would of called his parents into the police station and that alone would have shamed him to see his parents there.

[pipoman]

37. It is the job of the police to build criminal cases.

They shouldn't be allowed to talk to anyone who is a minor, or adults with obvious mental disorders without a parent or legal council present. Until one has sat through 6 hours of police interrogation, it is difficult to understand how profanely ill advised allowing them to do this to a child. Would water boarding be worse if they were doing it to a child? There are some things which children shouldn't be subjected to..6 hours of police interrogation without an advocate present is torturous. Very few adults cannot be mentally fatigued after an hour..

[southernyankeebelle]

40. I don't think they should be able to talk with a minor either unless a parent or a lawyer is with

the child. All I am saying again as soon as they took the child the parents should have been notified to come right away at the station. But this kid apparently was a bully and that needs to be dealt with also or he would have continued bullying this same kid and taking his money.

[LiberalAndProud]

11. Which site would that be?

Reyes was charged with robbery after someone said he grabbed $5 that a classmate had dropped on the floor, causing a scuffle among several boys.

[southernyankeebelle]

30. I read it on Radar online, The NY Daily and Daily Mail online. The stories said the same thing.

I just telling you all what I read. There may be more to the story I don't know. But neither do anyone else here. We read what we read. It could be wrong and maybe its not. Go over and read them instead of getting mad at me. One thing I have learn on DU if you don't go with the flow and agree you kinda of get criticized and I don't think that is fair. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion wheter we agree or disagree as long as we are respectful and I think I have tried to be on this particular subject not just with you but several comments.

[progressoid]

34. I wouldn't use The NY Daily and Daily Mail to wipe myself.

Never been to Radar online, but a when it bills itself as "the latest celebrity news and entertainment gossip..." I gotta wonder how much effort they put into actual news reporting.

[southernyankeebelle]

35. Then don't go over to the site. I was asked where I read it. I answered. I don't

know what way the NY Daily news leans. I just read the article. Funny thing is all three sites said the some thing. Just because you don't like them doesn't mean the story isn't right. My goodness are you that narrow minded. Maybe it has it on yahoo news or the NY times. Don't shoot the messenger. Go over to Buzzfeed maybe they have it there.

[Matariki]

28. There IS no "other side"

No "other side" to what the police did or how this school district handles discipline.

If the kid is bullying other kids there are healthy and helpful ways to deal with it the DON'T involve the police.

[Downwinder]

8. I'm having problems

seeing a seven year old bullying a nine year old.

[southernyankeebelle]

9. Don't let size full you. Some kids don't like to fight.

[rhett o rick]

36. That's part of the problem. People assume that it doesnt happen. nm

[uponit7771]

23. What does that have to do with this story? What the police did was illegal and stupid and dangerous

...I really wanted this kid to be white with blonde hair and blue eyes too

[southernyankeebelle]

25. Huh? I didn't say anything like that. How dare you put words in my mouth. I don't give

a damn. I am just commenting on the article. Don't shoot the messenger. Read the rest of my comments. I agree they shouldn't have put the kid in cuffs. But the kid wasn't an angel. That is all am saying. If you think that I wish the kid was blonde and blue eyes your an idiot.

[LiberalAndProud]

12. Maybe because students' rights are being violated.

From the linked article:

Nearly 900 arrests were made at New York City public schools during the 2011-2012 school year, and 90 percent involved black or Latino students, according to an analysis of NYPD data released last year. Another 1,666 summonses were issued for illegal conduct.

New York’s public school students are dragged out of classrooms and cafeterias by police officers for shouting in the hallways or scribbling on desks. Court summonses and assault charges are levied for playground fistfights, and students are carted from schools to precincts for the fear-inducing offense of carrying a cell phone on school grounds. In a number of cases, officers have also used excessive force to arrest children for violating school rules, at times leaving injuries requiring hospitalization.

[Squinch]

14. Nevermind. On closer reading, you are right. I'm self deleting.

Thanks for the correction

[pipoman]

5. Wow..Pulitzer material IMO

[pokerfan]

22. Agreed (nt)

[Baitball Blogger]

15. Thank goodness that boy was strong. I know many of us were raised never to question

authority, so if they said you did it, you were suppose to agree with them or the situation got worse. I thought this predilection was a throw-back to my generation, but my nephew once told me that he would confess to something he didn't do just to stop the badgering.

[zeemike]

16. Alfred Hitchcock had a life long intense fear of the police

He was asked if he knew why and he did...when he was 5 his father gave him a note to take to the police station and the cops locked him in a cell...he did not give the details...but he may not have known, which made it worse
so I hope they sue the shit out of them so that this kind of crap stops....

[nvme]

18. Seriously?!!!!

7 y/o child handcuffed? Ya gotta friggin be kidding. If he was bullying is not good enough. 10 hours someones butt is getting rundededd over on that one. The dimwit who did this really needs to be relieved of duty.

[ananda]

41. Let the punishment fit the crime.

This police treatment was inappropriate and unjust.

Yes, there should have been bullying intervention, but not like that.

[Swagman]

19. a dangerous looking suspect for sure

I cannot imagine why an adult would handcuff a child..where is their head at ?

[Ronbeaux]

20. I know the feeling.

When I was around 11, I always got off on the last stop of my school bus. One day, a plainclothes deputy rode in the front seat and when it came time for me to exit (I was the only kid left), he stopped me and started yelling at me about throwing things. I had been sitting reading most of the way or talking to a friend but never threw anything or created any problems. I had never been in trouble but was scared to death. I denied it, started crying but he just continued screaming at me, shaking a finger in my face and threatening me with arrest if he ever saw me do it again. Even the bus driver, who knew me, said nothing but I could see the apology in his eyes. And I think he was even too intimidated to speak up.

My parents were not pleased and went to the school the next day to protest the incident and accusation. I never saw that deputy again. And the driver and I never spoke again. He knew I was innocent and wasn't a troublemaker but I never forgave him for not standing up that day.

I feel for this kid.

[tblue]

21. Oh no!!!

Horrible. You are lucky your patents had your back. Mine never had mine and I have always had to stand up for myself even if I was alone doing it. I'm sorry that happened to you. Adults, even cops, have very human failings and some abuse the power they're bestowed. A badge isn't a license to terrify a child. And you were innocent! So sorry. But look how you turned out!

[uponit7771]

24. *READ THE LINK* really good story of why NOT to have armed police in our schools right now!!

[southernyankeebelle]

26. I agree with everyone here the boy shouldn't have been put in the cuffs at all. But

where is the justice for the boy who was being bullied? He and his friend took this boys money and has done it on more the one occasion. We all don't know the whole truth. Bullying shouldn't be done by anyone.

I don't want police in our schools either. I think if they are having problems with bullies then the school needs to take care of the problem and their parents. I know if my child was taking someone's money and picking on a kid you better believe I'd get to the bottom of it. If my child took the other child's money I would see that the bullied child would get his money back and I would make my child do chores to pay me back. If a parent has a bully child they should nip it right away because he not that child will be a terrible grown up and repeat his bad habits to their own children.

[Niceguy1]

27. I was able to find

A real news story and there is a lot more to the story than was presented in the ACLU article.

The assault and robbery happened off campus...and the boy that was arrested is a bully.

[southernyankeebelle]

31. Yes, that is what I read the very same thing. It happened several times to this boy.

Yes it happened off the school grounds. I think he was at home when the bullied boy's mother gave him some money to walk over to his local store to get some treats when it happened and that is why the police got involved. I guess the bullied boy's mother had enough and finally did something about it. It wasn't her fault the child was handcuffed that long.

[Nine]

33. A lot is still unknown or at least in dispute.

There are differing accounts about a lot of this. I tend to think the kid WAS a bully. I think the length of the interrogation has been exaggerated. But I still think it's wrong to pull a 7-year-old out of school over this instead of handling it in-school. The handcuffing seems completely unnecessary, and the position the kid is in looks really uncomfortable. And bully or not, I don't think the kid would have been treated this way if he were white and/or upper class. The ACLU is trying to combat a big far-reaching problem, I think, but they still need a specific test case and although this one isn't perfect, it's hard to justify the actions of the police here.

[Niceguy1]

39. The problem

A that it was an off campus assult and out of the schools jurisdiction.

The real question is what do you do with a bully that age ?

[kiva]

32. Bully’s victim speaks: Cops should have ‘never taken the cuffs off’ of his 7-year-old tormentor

[IMG][/IMG]

The purported victim of a tiny Bronx thug wishes the NYPD kept his 7-year-old tormentor permanently handcuffed.

Elementary schooler Seth Acevedo told the Daily News that he only felt safe from Wilson Reyes after the cruel third-grader was busted last month for beating and robbing him.

“Wilson was the worst bully,” said Seth, 9, in an interview Wednesday with the Daily News. “He would call me names. He would punch and kick me. I wish they never took the cuffs off of him.”

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bully-victim-speaks-article-1.1251351#ixzz2JlxobpxE

[dkf]

38. If he was bullying other kids, then sorry but I can't find much sympathy.

I wish all serial bullies were cuffed up for a few hours.

And shame on this mother if she let her son do this. Maybe he was stopped before he made some poor kid kill him/herself.

[ceile]

42. So because he was a bully, this is ok w/ some of you?!

HE'S 7!!! Perspective people...

[Starry Messenger]

43. Some of the comments in this thread are insane.

There are ways to deal with elementary school bullying. This sure as heck should not be a way. How the hell is a several hour ordeal being bullied by cops supposed to teach a child that bullying isn't right? If anything, this might just reinforce the idea that "might makes right."