Cops Cuff 8-Year-Old For Fighting (FL)

[Kadie]

Cops Cuff 8-Year-Old For Fighting

POSTED: 6:39 pm EDT October 6, 2004
UPDATED: 6:48 pm EDT October 6, 2004

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Police handcuffed and arrested an 8-year-old boy after a fight and charged him with misdemeanor battery and criminal mischief.

First grader Isaac Sutton was arrested Monday by a Tallahassee police officer because of a fight with a 10-year-old boy in his neighborhood. A police report said Isaac punched and slapped the other boy during an argument. The victim's mother called police.

snip...
"This was children's stuff, a disagreement between two neighborhood kids," said Kathy Garner, Isaac's attorney.

snip...

It was the second time in recent weeks that a north Florida elementary school student has been booked by police for fighting. A 7-year-old in neighboring Jefferson County was arrested at school Sept. 1 for allegedly fighting another student, hitting a teacher and scratching a police officer.

http://www.thekcrachannel.com/news/3789313/detail.html

[LoZoccolo]

1. Good.

People forget that bullies fuck with other kids all the time - why wait until they seriously hurt someone to teach them that they should not be committing battery?

[beniciodeltoro]

4. bullies should be punished

I, for one, this arrest was probably OK

[DrWeird]

6. Sure. Prosecute him as an adult too.

I say 3 to 5 years in a medium security prison.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

7. You are Soft On Crime®! Why do you Defend Criminals®? (nt)

[DrWeird]

8. well

I wouldn't want to look weak for the freepers.

OK, lynch the kid.

[Scairp]

28. 8 beating on 10?

I don't think it would be physically possible for him to be the bully. And an 8 year old in the first grade must be behind in his development. Perhaps the other kid was the bully and he was just defending himself. Another gross overreacting by cops.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

39. Bingo

We all know authorities have the power of vanishing whenever a bully is abusing a victim, only to magically reappear if/when the victim decides to defend him/herself.

[rman]

34. bullies?

how do you know there were any bullies involved? and why do you asume (so it seems) the 8 year old was the bully, if there was any?

i think you asume to much.

[olddem43]

2. Poor little 10 year old, beaten up by an 8 year old.

Just the embarrassment would be injury enough. Probably ought to give the 8 year old several years in jail. Either that or send him to bed without his dinner.

[Art_from_Ark]

3. An 8-year-old in 1st grade?

Methinks there is much more to this story

[sam sarrha]

5. dont drink the water

[Scootman78]

9. Not the Poster Child for No Child Left Behind

[sam sarrha]

15. sorry but he might well be the poster child for NCLB, TX has a 40% drop

out rate with the origional program that has been deliberately hidden to protect the pResident.

[Tight_rope]

31. LMBAO....Good one!

[LiberalFighter]

20. Must be one of JEB*s sons

[Tight_rope]

32. Could be!

[Gemini Cat]

29. If a kid's birthday is during the winter

months (after the cut off date) and if the kid fails first or is otherwise held back from starting school, it is possible for the kid to be eight in first grade.

[Art_from_Ark]

38. Well, it's early October, he's 8 and in the first grade

If his birthday was recent, that explains one year, and if he failed first grade, that's a stigma right there that can quickly lead to taunting and trouble.

Kind of reminds me of when I was in the first grade (6 years old, first week), and for some reason the 4th graders were unsupervised with us first graders on the playground. I met a kid I didn't know who was shorter than I was, and I asked him whose class he was in, assuming he was also in the first grade. He said he was in Miss Adams' class. I knew she wasn't a 1st grade teacher, so I told him that. He said, "I know.. I'm in the 4th grade!" Well, he was shorter than me, so like a stupid 1st grader, I blurted out "You're not in the 4th grade!" I guess he'd heard that one too many times, because he just let loose and gave me a bloody nose.

In other words, kids who are appear to be misfits among the other members of their class might be subjected to so many stupid remarks that they can reach the breaking point.

[sam sarrha]

10. It is NOT children's Stuff... they need to be held responsible for their

actions... There needs to be a record of antisocial behavior in order to adequately deal with some very dangerous psychological disorders.

ASBD: Anti Social Behavior Disorder, usually first violent assault around 6 or 8, first sexual assault 10 or 12, Armed violent rape soon follows.

a felony is still a felony even if committed by a child. Explaining away the seriousness of a crime puts us all in danger and teaches the child they can get away with it..

I was extremely tall and was tortured and brutalized by gangs of bullies, never protected in the public schools even though i was beaten bloody numerous times in school and had a testicle ruptured in one beating by 6 others.. boys being boys.. hell they were just fucking criminals. 6 of the 8 in the gang that tormented me were dead within 5 years of graduating high school. some from drug addiction but most were murdered because they so dangerous that people in the community just killed them to protect their families.

harming others has consequences, this needs to made perfectly clear to bullies. I thought that after Columbine something would be done about Bullying.. but nothing has changed, i applaud the Florida cops, we have a young kid <10 or 11> in this neighborhood that viciously beats older children and younger children.. saw him jump into a group of 6 and beat one kid senseless. he then kicked him several times afterward when he was down, then face down the rest of the group then laugh at them as strutted away.

[dawgman]

22. DId you ever fight as a youngster? Innocence at its best..

I sure did. Half the time it was my older brother telling the neighborhood kids thay I could kick there ass and then arranging the place and time. The other half was when someone picked a fight with me. There was a smaller kid who was four years my senior whose ass I routinely kicked... should I have been sent to jail or should it have been written off, as it was, as boys being boys.

Let it go... to tell you the truth there may not be anything more innocent than young boys fighting. I usually ended up very good friends with the kids I fought.

[DemBones DemBones]

23. DId you read his post? nt

[dawgman]

25. Is there a difference between a slap and punch from a younger kid

toward an older kid and a child who "viciously beats kids" and a teen who is beating people bloody and rupturing testes?

A fight amongst youngsters is innocent irrational dangerous bullying is something else.

[Medium Baby Jesus]

42. Nothing more comforting

than young boys fighting.

:eyes:

[Ilsa]

11. An eight year in first grade sounds like a child with

a developmental disability. I find this to be so scary. My oldest is disabled and will be eight soon, in first grade, and he takes medication for aggression. I hate to think what would happen if we lost our health insurance and couldn't afford his meds anymore. I suppose they'd arrest him, even though he wouldn't understand why.

[vetwife]

12. Well I may get flamed but I think this is outrageous..parents should

have dealt with the child and sought to seek counseling. Kids are gonna fuss and fume. At 8 they are still developing and trying to deal with anger. Who knows what the child was dealing with at home?
Authorities should have called the parents and HRS (child protective services) and expelled but what damage was done dragging the kid off in cuffs? He is a child afterall. Maybe he sees Mommie or Daddy do things like this and Daddy and Mommie got off scott free huh? To what purpose did this serve. Scared straight? Don't think so.

[sam sarrha]

14. We need to hear from the neighbors and teachers about this kid before we

jump to any conclusions...

I was a Juvenile Parole officer for 2 years..

The cop may have been more aware of what is going on there.

he could have been like the little Psycopath down my street... probably the only thing that keeps him in line is that everybody has a LOT of guns around here.

[Ilsa]

17. There are more questions than answers here.

But I can't believe that handcuffs are the answer either. This is a child that needed earlier intervention.

[DemBones DemBones]

24. Earlier intervention certainly seems to have been needed,

but it wasn't provided -- or didn't work -- and if the kid is now a serious bully, he can't be allowed to beat other kids bloody.

It's a shame that some kids have to be handcuffed. I don't think anybody likes that. But what do we do with out-of-control kids?

[shanti]

13. jeebus, people, think about where this kid is!!

florida has been having a huge increase of mental health cases. the 3 (4?) hurricanes the children have suffered through is taking its toll.

if the children are acting out, imagine the adults :scared:

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

16. Intervention is needed, but Christ on a pogo stick, an arrest????

Sorry, but this attitude of throw everybody in jail has got to be curtailed. We already have the highest per capita pecentage of population in jail or prison of any other industrialised nation.

Hell, adolescent boys have been fighting each other since there have been adolescent boys. You could arrest every kid in the country and they would still be getting into scrapes as long as they can get to each other. Luckily, most grow out of it by the time they're 14.

Sigh.

[Guaranteed]

18. I agree...I think cuffing the kid was good

just to scare the shit out of him, but taking him downtown? Come ON. A little overkill, there.

[DemBones DemBones]

26. I think there must be more to it than just ordinary fighting,

since you're right that boys fight. (Girls fight, too, and I'd rather break up a fight between boys than one between girls. We are not always the gentler sex.) Some fighting is within the range of normal behavior.

The schools get more seriously disturbed kids all the time, ask most any teacher. There are just some things schools can't deal with, some students who are a threat to other people.

On a positive note, I've seen a number of kids turn themselves around. When kids know someone (a parent, a teacher) believes in them, believes they can make it academically and behaviorally, despite a "bad record", small miracles can happen. Those are some of my best memories of teaching. If only we knew how to help all the kids. :-(

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

40. I'm of the opinion that as a society, we have become hyper-sensitive...

We live in a knee-jerk society and have become "punishment crazy."

Shit happens. It's like the increase in hit and runs since the punishment for driving after a glass of wine could lead to a punishment equal to a manslaughter conviction.

IMHO, it's worse now than it was in Puritan America.

[PartyPooper]

19. Jeb's "family values". Maybe this kid will be "Christianised" in prison.

I understand that Christian salvation is available to one and all in Florida's penetentiaries.

:eyes:

[Swamp Rat]

21. Give the brat the chair!... the CHAIR!

Let's arrest everybody for everything!

[DemBones DemBones]

27. A good time-out in a chair would be a start.

But not that kind of chair.

[soup]

30. More of the story

Posted on Thu, Oct. 07, 2004

Details of boy's arrest emerge

Police: They didn't want to cuff kid

By James L. Rosica

DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

>snip<
His mother's refusal to pay for a busted tennis racket resulted in first-grader Isaac Sutton being handcuffed and taken to a juvenile facility.
>snip<

Furuseth, Scott's supervisor, said police were on the scene for at least two hours, trying to resolve the conflict. Scott had determined that the damaged racket belonged to the Boys & Girls Clubs, where the 10-year-old victim had signed it out.

"We tried to contact somebody who could tell us the racket's value and how they wanted it handled, but it was after hours and we couldn't find the right person," Furuseth said.

He and Scott talked to Isaac's mother, Pamela Kelly, telling her if she was willing to pay for the racket, they would issue her son a juvenile civil citation.

Instead of arresting them, police can issue juvenile civil citations to youths who commit their first minor criminal offense, with community service and restitution as punishment.

But Kelly refused to pay for the racket or even call the Boys & Girls Clubs about it, according to Furuseth.

"It was very frustrating," he said. "We were getting no cooperation; at one point, she wouldn't even talk to us. That left us no other option but to take him into custody."
>full article:
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/9854378.htm

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Note to mods: Hope this isn't posting too much of the article. It's difficult to snip when the 'paragraphs' are only one sentence.
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It may be more of the story, but it still doesn't seem like it's enough to make a call on whether or not it was necessary to cuff this kid and take him to JAC.

[Tight_rope]

33. BADASS KIDS...They just get worse...Must be something in the Happy Meals

[Mr E McSquare]

35. what I dont get is...

whats with the cuffs? were the cops afraid of this kid??
I'm sure the next step was to pepper spray and tazer the kid.

[impe]

36. Some Mom

calling the police on an 8 year old? Not excusing his actions but this is over the top on the
"adults" part. Taking the child to the police station as a scare tactic is cute but the handcuffs is
truly scary!

He's a kid~ Florida has had 4 major hurricanes - some of you folks are nuts.

[truthisfreedom]

37. prepping 'em for the prison industrial complex. another moneymaking

enterprise here in the grand USA that relies on keeping "all of the beds full." profits galore, food like shit, endless training to become hardened criminals so they can rinse, lather, repeat offend.

[Deja Q]

41. Get rid of the bullies before they create people like Charles Williams

Charles 'Andy' Williams, a victim of bully abuse, cracked and killed in return. Having been the victim to a number of sad incidents in the past, I empathize with Charles though I certainly don't condone violence.

To this day, people mourn those Charles killed while forgetting that had the source problem been dealt with in the first place, Charlie would likely have not become a killer. (nor can I watch the sappy annual 'remembrance' days that shovel it up for the final victims, glad that a killer is behind bars, with the root causes untouched as usual.)

Now to the story at hand:

Assuming he picked the fight, put the 8 year old punk in jail, fuse the lock, and melt the key.

Of course, who provoked the fight? Was it the 10 year old and this article, typical of American media, doesn't tell us all the details that led to the end result? I can only infer that the 8 year old brat is the only culprit here, but still...