There is something very disturbing about not one, but two incidents in which very young children are being handcuffed, placed in a squad car and detained in a holding cell.
What is going on? One of the incidents happened last fall in Orlando where a 6-year-old girl was arrested, put in handcuffs and taken in a squad car to a juvenile center after allegedly kicking and punching employees at her school. That seems pretty crazy to me to even have to handcuff a baby. She's a baby and no kind of threat. She is six years old -- who does that?
The Orlando Police Department said the officer violated the policy on arresting a child under 12, which has to have a supervisor's approval, which he did not get. He was fired.
And locally in Chicago a Cook County judge has been placed on administrative duty after escorting a child into a lockup holding area and leaving her alone for about 10 minutes. The Cook County Sheriff's office is conducting an internal investigation into that situation.
I am aware that children between the ages of 10 and 17 can be arrested, however depending on the alleged "crime" certain restrictions should be in place. In these particular instances these are very young girls, and children of color. What type of precedence is being set here?