According to an AP article on YahooNews.com, Wilson Reyes, a 7-year-old boy from New York City was accused of stealing $5 from a schoolmate after a scuffle with him.
Police came and handcuffed the young boy and he was then taken and held in a room at P.S.114 in the Bronx for four hours. He was then taken to the precinct where he was allegedly held for another six hours and then charged with robbery.
What is wrong with the NYPD? They did the unthinkable when they handcuffed this 7-year-old boy and took him to the precinct. That was bad enough, but when they got him to the precinct, they had him stilled handcuffed by one wrist to the wall of the room he was in. That wasn’t the worst. During those ten hours, they verbally, physically and emotionally abused this young boy. Have they nothing better to do than to handcuff a 7-year-old and question him for 10 hours?
Reported in an article from Fox2Now, this seven-year-old supposedly had a fight with another boy, punched him and took his money. Now, this may well have happened, but that was no reason for all of this badgering from the police to take place.
An inspector with the city, Kim Royster, said that the story about the interrogation time was exaggerated and said that “the boy was treated like any other young suspect.” He's labeled a suspect; really? How many times when we were growing up did we hear about or even witness a scuffle between students where accusations flew? Were the police brought in? Why would they if there were no weapons and no one was physically harmed?
The worst that should have happened here was that he was called into the principal’s office if it happened on school grounds, his parents should be notified immediately and it would be worked out between the parents of the boys and the principle. Between them they could figure out what the consequences should be for their actions, there would be an apology from the offending boy to the boy who was robbed and his parents, and the money would be returned. This is how it used to be handled.
Inspector Kim Royster also said it was grossly untrue that Wilson was held for six hours at the precinct. She said it was less than half that time. So that makes it ok to hand cuff and hold a 7-year-old boy and put him through unnecessary trauma?
Some reports give some slightly different takes on what and exactly how this confrontation came about. One of the boys involved told the press that Wilson was a bully and always made fun of him. Another report says that the money in question ($5) was money that was supposed to go for a field trip that never happened. The money fell on the ground in front of Wilson and two other boys. One of the boys grabbed the money and because Wilson was there, he was accused of taking the $5. If this had been a matter of a lot of money and Wilson had caused some bodily harm to the other boy or anyone else then there would have been cause to bring the police into it.
Honestly, between the schools and the police, it’s hard to determine which are more paranoid or is it that they just shouldn’t be in their chosen field of work? It’s pretty obvious that those who act like this don’t have very good people skills and most definitely they do not know how to handle children. Isn’t it the job of police and educators to protect people especially children? Is that a wrong assumption?
With the way schools and police are treating our children they are going to turn them into paranoid youngsters who will be afraid of just being themselves. Our children are dealing with enough in the world today; they don’t need people they should be able to look up to acting like idiots. Isn’t the world confusing enough for children these days? Do they really need those adults over-reacting to every little thing that they do?
When you continue to read stories of children being treated like criminals just for being themselves, having some fun, pretending, doing some silly things that children are likely to do, it makes you wonder how our children are going to manage to even grow up without some stigma to follow them. Because the adults they are supposed to be able to trust have made them feel insecure, will they enter adulthood carrying baggage they shouldn’t have to carry? That is not a referral to suite cases.
The recent actions of school officials and police officers, brings to mind some questions. 1. In the case of Wilson Reyes, why were the police called in the first place and who called them? 2. When, exactly, were his parents called? 3. Why was it necessary to hold Wilson that long and terrify the boy with all their accusations, questions and possibly threats about what could happen to him? 4. Why on earth, would the police put that young child through ten hours that to him must have been the scariest he’s ever experienced? 5. What must have been going through this young boy’s mind?
Here’s a question that comes to mind: Wouldn’t the children benefit more from teachers teaching and not being so paranoid about every word or action that comes from the students? Also, wouldn’t it be better for our children if they knew the police who are supposed to protect them are actually doing that instead of putting themselves in the middle of something that could have been handled between the parents of the boys involved and maybe with the principle of the school?
Have the officers at the NYPD who handled this case, run out of actual crimes to take on? Are there no more burglaries, robberies, rapes, murders, you know, real crimes going on that they can spend so much time scaring a young boy to death with hand cuffs and long hours of questioning?
Granted, there are other stories dealing with paranoia that are different from Wilson’s situation, but the over-reaction is the same. It must stop! We can’t let our children be victims of idiocy that can be harmful to them in a very traumatic way that could last for years.
The following statement is a repetition of something said in a previous article. It seems like these people need to be given some serious counseling on how to handle disputes between young children or children playing and pretending to shoot a gun. Seriously, these people are damaging our children with this nonsense.
We teach our children to be respectful to their teachers and to the police, but doesn’t that go both ways? Don’t our children deserve some respect, as well? How are the actions of the NYPD in this case showing our children that they respect them and want to protect them?
It seems like since the Sandy Hook shooting there has been much too much over-reaction on the part of the schools and police departments. Perhaps it’s time for school boards and police supervisors to order those who find it necessary to over-react to these kinds of situations to undergo some serious counseling. They are not making our children feel safe; instead, they are traumatizing them.
Wake up people! If you can’t handle being an educator or police authority without traumatizing the children in your towns or cities, then you need to either get some good counseling to prevent it from happening again or you need to find another line of work.
Not only are you traumatizing the children, you are paving the way for some tough law suits to be filed against your personally as well as the schools and police precincts, not to mention the city. Wilson’s parents are suing the city and the NYPD because of the treatment their son received.
How proud New York’s finest must be. They caught and detained a 7-year-old criminal whom it turns out was falsely accused. According to the New York Post, legal papers say that another boy admitted later that he was the one who took the money.
This is just unbelievable that police anywhere in this country would treat a 7-year-old like this. Hey, NYPD, how about going after some real criminals? The police officers that did this should have been reprimanded and made to apologize to Wilson and his family. Hopefully that happened.
It’s doubtful, however, that it would be enough to stop Wilson’s family from carrying out their suit against the city and the NYPD.
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