It's painful to watch something unjust happen and know there's nothing you can do about it.
It's worse, when it happens to someone close to you.
A Florida cop is seen on video arresting a six-year-old girl. The child is crying as zip ties are placed around her wrists.
It's, uh, a lot to watch.
This footage was released by the family of Kaia Rolle, who I'm sure are furious with the Orlando Police Department. The incident, which took place in September, was all caught on bodycam.
It isn't the first time a cop has been unnecessarily called on a child, but it is one of the more visceral instances.
Officer Dennis Turner is heard in exchange with the young girl,
"Come over here."
"What are those for?"
"It's for you."
The child starts crying as the zip ties are placed around her wrists and she is placed under arrest.
This is absolutely horrible.
Young Kaia had thrown a tantrum at school, kicking someone in the chaos. Police were called to mediate the situation, but instead, Officer Turner arrested the child.
Meralyn Kirkland, Kaia's grandmother, explained that the girl suffers from sleep apnea and was likely acting out due to sleep deprivation. Either way, an arrest was out of line.
When she went to pick up Kaia from the juvenile detention center:
"They told us we had to wait a few minutes because Kaia was being fingerprinted, and when she said fingerprinted it hit me like a ton of bricks."
"No six-year-old child should be able to tell somebody that they had handcuffs on them, and they were riding in the back of a police car and taken to a juvenile center to be fingerprinted, mug shot."
All this over a six-year-old's tantrum.
In the video, after the arrest, you can see Officer Turner talking with the school officials, who seem dismayed someone so young was arrested. Which demonstrates how inappropriate it is to ask untrained personnel like police officers to deal with issues better handled by child psychologists or counselors.
Turner bragged:
"6,000 people I've arrested over the 28 years, that's a lot of people."
"But that young?"
He claims the youngest he's ever arrested was 7 years old.
"7 is the youngest. She's 8 isn't she?"
"She's 6."
"Now she has broken the record."
This is a lot. It's a lot to handle, a lot to take in.
And yet there's still debate about the situation.
Charges against the child were dropped the next day. Officer Turner was fired from the police force as a result of his actions and comments caught on video.
The school denied they ever wanted the child arrested. However what else were they expecting a police officer to do?
Orlando Police Chief, Orlando Rolon said of the incident:
"As a grandfather of three children less than 11 years old, I can only imagine how traumatic this was for everyone involved."
"We were all appalled. We could not fathom the idea of a 6-year-old being put in the back of a police car."
The incident has been dealt with, and hopefully the school and police department learned a valuable lesson.
And the damage done by Ex-Officer Turner can be addressed.
...Ugh.
There isn't a facepalm strong enough for this.
Harris For President
