CINCINNATI May 5, 2005 — Two officers accused of handcuffing a 5-year-old boy after a fight on a school bus have been suspended from police duties while the city investigates the allegations, authorities said.
Chief Tom Streicher assigned officers Douglas Snider and Kaneshia Howell to desk work Tuesday and took away their guns, police officials said. Mekel Finch, the boy's mother, sued the police department, the bus company and the driver in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court on April 29. She is asking for more than $50,000.
The lawsuit claims the driver improperly detained the boy allegedly grabbing the child around the neck and wrapping her legs around him before calling for aid after the boy was struck by another child on the bus Jan. 13.
OK, an adult bus driver could not subdue this five year old. She feared she couldn't handle the situation and called police. What does that tell you? She had to lock the kid on the bus and evacuate the other children. Tells me someone was out of control.
So, instead of discipling the boy for his behavior and getting into trouble, mommy does nothing for 5 months (the incident happened in January). Why doesn't she file a complaint sooner? Here is why, because the sharks weren't circling around cops until now. Again, from the same article from ABC News:
In a similar case, police in St. Petersburg, Fla., handcuffed a 5-year-old girl on March 14 after she tore papers off a bulletin board and allegedly punched an assistant principal in kindergarten class. Police were investigating why three officers pinned her arms behind her back and put on handcuffs as she screamed, "No!"
Now in this case, we have an unruly child kicking and throwing staplers and other objects in a school office. The teachers and principal have been assaulted. So, they call the police. The police come and see the unruly child. What should they have done? Tazed the girl? Asked her really nicely to come along? The pinhead Bill O'Reilly 'opined' that the police should have fireman's carried the girl to the car. OK, Bill, and what would have happened if the girl would have gotten a bruise? Bigger lawsuit.
Police have every right to cuff unruly people, if nothing else, to calm them down and for their own safety. Police are taught to restrain people who could potentially harm themselves or others. Unruly children screaming and kicking and punching certainly falls into that category. In the Florida case, what would have happened if the girl would have been allowed to continue and she would have fallen off the desk onto a knife or something? In the Cincinnati case, what would have happened if police just stood around while the kid was in the bus and the child put the bus into gear and caused a serious accident?
Society is really screwed up when we cannot discipline children or protect them from themselves. Of course, there is a sunny side. Appareantly little Izell in Cincy learned a valuable lesson: Mommie reports he is now scared of the police and doesn't want to get into trouble. HEY! SOUNDS LIKE A GOOD RESULT!
The handcuffing was not a disservice to either child. Lax parents more concerned with a payday and less concerned with their children's behavior is the real disservice.
More Mark's Remarks 10:42 am Eastern
Why is she suing for this this late, in Cincinnati? Answer: because Cincinnati knows how to pay the bling bling in hush money. We have an ASSistant Mayor, Alicia "Got the Job to Party" Reese, who has decided the best way to become Mayor is to divide the community by inciting more racial hatred, to question the police at every turn, and to emasculate law enforcement. We have bigots like Chris Smitherman who think he is God and who want to take over the city for their own ends. And we have pantywaists on the rest of council and a dork for a mayor who rather than stand on principle, will listen to the cries of pay them off! from Reese and Smitherman. Smitherman and Reese are disgraces to the city, and since they have come on board have done nothing but lead the city further into chaos. Thanks to Reese, Smitherman, and Co. Cincinnati is the this year's Flint, Michigan; or should I say, Fort Wayne, IN?
