8-Year Old Arrested on Felony Charges

Shemsi en Tehuti · (#1 (**permalink**))

8-year-old arrested, accused of hitting teacher

FORT MYERS: An eight-year old boy is about to get a first hand lesson in criminal justice. The second grader was arrested for allegedly punching his teacher in the face. NBC2's Patrick Flanary had a chance to speak to the young boy.

An argument over crayons in the classroom ended inside a patrol car for second grader Deshawn Williams. His wrists were in handcuffs and his teacher was badly bruised...

READ FULL STORY HERE...

astmartins · (#2 (**permalink**))

Ques-where did he learn to hit women at that age ?

The mom's reaction says it all..can't blame the kids the upbringing says its all

Le Moor · (#3 (**permalink**))

Is the issue here not the fact that an eight yr old AFRICAN AMERICAN boy was ARRESTED and escorted away in HANDCUFFS.

astmartins · (#4 (**permalink**))

^
Never said it wasn't but the root of the problem would also be assessed if the mother or father(if hes around)had taken care of business the kid would not even be in the position to be handcuffed by the Police in the first place....yes its OTT as per usual but lets step back a bit..

Black Lion · (#5 (**permalink**))

Handcuffs .lol. The devils got some cheek.

Backatya · (#6 (**permalink**))

Quote:

Originally Posted by astmartins

^
Never said it wasn't but the root of the problem would also be assessed if the mother or father(if hes around)had taken care of business the kid would not even be in the position to be handcuffed by the Police in the first place....yes its OTT as per usual but lets step back a bit..

Yes let's step back a bit.

My FIRST concern is with the 'arresting and escorting away in handcuffs".

How any one can latch on to the '"Where did he learn to hit a woman in the face" as the first focus, beats me. I have seen kids under 2 years old strike AN adult (in the face and other places) let alone another child. Surely one would not advocate that the IMMEDIATE reaction to such instances would be to HANDCUFF AND PUT IN THE BACK OF A POLICE CAR?
I tell you, no white parent would stand for that, yet we here we have a black person coming out in OUTRAGE that a 8 year old could hit a woman, whilst barely battering an eye-lid at the obvious OVER THE TOP AND TOTALLY INAPPROPRIATE REACTION in response to the actions (unacceptable they be? yes) of that 8 year young African male, hardly out of kindergarten. I sometimes wonder if we are for real.

Sure there is the issue of a child showing such disrespect to an adult (particular one in authority) and certainly the behaviour of our young is something which Society (parents and adults in general) need to address at every level (I am not making excuses for the behaviour by any means). However, we should NEVER, NEVER take it lightly when our young (Africans) are being subject to a level of EXCESSIVE PUNISHMENT OR CORRECTIVE ACTION, totally out of proportion to the 'crime'. Damn! we (well some of us) concur with the banning of smacking/slippering/canning etc. in schools......so how can "Calling in the police to HANDCUFF (handcuff an 8 year old for ****'s sake!) and take away in a police car", be an acceptable alternative?

I am amazed when I see my fellow Africans ready to support, justify or excuse OUTRAGEOUS, REACTIONARY TREATMENT of our people by WHITE AUTHORITY on the grounds of "WELL WE SHOULDN'T BE BEHAVING THAT WAY".
Hell, I am NOT saying let bad behaviour slide (bad behaviour has to be dealt with no matter the colour of the perpetrator), but let's step back for a moment and look at the thing in the wider context.
Is handcuffing and bundling into a police car the ONLY or MOST APPROPRIATE method for CORRECTING unsociable or unacceptable behavour displayed by our VERY YOUNG?

In private I may well want to take the mother into a side room and give her a lecture about child rearing. But in public I would be shouting (as we all should) that THIS 'reaction' is NOT ACCEPTABLE, NO WAY!

Respect

astmartins · (#7 (**permalink**))

^^
I don't know why you getting hot and bothered with my comments i actually absolved the child...did i ever say the Police did the right thing?? but you peeved with me 'cos i didn't auto cruise into YT racism?..you just took offence because i pointed out the obvious root of the problem..I have been invloved in Police aggro and my coz is involved in a high profile case with the same police and the same OTT treatment so whats mine with the Police?? Yes it was excessive and my comments would have been the same if it were a YT or Latino kid...why do i have to dilute my comments and not look at things objectively just because its a African Child??....I was brought up to respect Authority and i better not come home if I even dared to hit a teacher thats like sacrilege...so you have to understand where i'm coming from
You cannot overlook the obvious root causes of this sort of behaviour Parents need to be more steadfast whatever that entails depends on what they want for their kids....well this is a probem in western societies which doesn't allow one discipline their kids...Blame Western culture and influence upon us they tell us do not discipline your kids yet when they get out of hand this OTT reaction from the Racist Police occurs
and yes kids can be petulant but not to the extent of hitting someone of authority in the face unless this is acceptable behaviour in your books as long as you are African...this is a two fold problem parental negligence and Excessive Police Reaction...

Black Lion · (#8 (**permalink**))

^ Think B.A is vexed at the story, sounded like you were scapegoating a bit and got caught in the cross fire there.

Anyway, why did the kid lash out at the teacher? If she intends to press charges there'll need to be evidence that the assault was an act of aggression rather than one of retaliation.

No scapegoating but perhaps the officers were teaching the kid a lesson, nanny state style, seriously can't see where they would have been going with that one, can hardly take an 8 year old to the police station he has rights, under age for arrest in the first place.

Stoke the fire beat the flame as they say.

Shemsi en Tehuti · (#9 (**permalink**))

Quote:

Originally Posted by astmartins

^
Never said it wasn't but the root of the problem would also be assessed if the mother or father(if hes around)had taken care of business the kid would not even be in the position to be handcuffed by the Police in the first place....yes its OTT as per usual but lets step back a bit..

I think an important issue missed is the fact that apparently this boys biological parents (mother and father) are absent. Why is it his grandmother speaking on his behalf? This may be indicative of even deeper problems the boy is dealing with in his life.

Melissa · (#10 (**permalink**))

He's a child ffs! He has been arrested and CHARGED, he has to return to court to answer a charge of aggravated battery. WTF!

Both points are valid, he shouldnt have been treated like a criminal as there are obviously deeper issues here, and they start in the home. Where are his parents? His grandmother was the one speaking on his behalf, and she seems to think a male teacher 'restraining' him is the solution.

He needs a counsellor to talk out all that aggression, attention seeking is the root of his problem, probably caused by his disruptive home life and basic lack of love, discipline and guidance. The grandmother says he gets upset and loves to hit, i bet he would have done this at school before this incident, so why did neither the grandmother or the school get this child some help?

And just look at his reaction, it mirrors the grandmothers, the animosity towards the teacher for pressing charges, instead of remorse for his actions, he has been getting away with this behaviour for so long he no longer sees it as 'wrong'.

If the handcuffs were supposed to be some sort of wake up call it doesn't appear to have work on this dude.

Black Lion · (#11 (**permalink**))

Yeah, sorry, didn't read the whole article, they actually charged him...? Thats just pathetic, a real low. The grandma is right she shouldn't be in that line of work if she can't handle some kid obvious he needs counseling or something, as though there aren't other children in the school who haven't acted up because they've got problems at home.

Almost laughable.

astmartins · (#12 (**permalink**))

I didn't read the part about him getting charged that is truly pathetic!!! charge a 8 year old??..the kid surely needs counselling at best or taken into care with another family that can see to his needs....criminalised at an early age reminds me of the film Hurricane it depicted to me vividly how Amerikka sets up African American Males

shopaholik · (#13 (**permalink**))

i am not looking at the race here but i am looking at the child for what he is, a child.

i think the punishment was justifiable and if people dont want that to happen to their kids they need to be teaching them respect. if he continues to get away with treating people like that can you imagine what he will be like as a teenager? he will think it is ok and the behaviour will spill into probably assaulting people in public or worse still his own family. he will probably beat his own wife or kids when he gets older and then who will we be blaming?

maybe now someone within his own family will realise that his has a problem and take back control.

a teacher or any other person who works in a job with the public does not need to go to work and be assaulted by anyone. put yourself in the teacher's place, also what if your child was in that class and got hit by one of the chairs he decided to throw? how would you react as a parent?

if more children in this country especially received that type of discipline they would more than likely think twice about doing it again.

i think the grandmother should be embarrased and instead of defending him by admitting that he gets violent when he is angry she should be taking control. his mum is probably a young girl who cannot look after/control him and the grandmother has a cheek to be blaming the teacher for losing control. what if the teacher did restrain him? then what? we would then be blaming the teacher for using force on a child who is defenceless.

it is absolutely out of order and a sign that parents/grandparents have no control over their OWN children. where does discipline start? the home. we cannot keep making excuses for bad behaviour and expecting society to raise our kids.